Chapter Text
The bar is brimming with people by the time Juliana arrives.
She quickly orders a drink and finds a secluded corner to retreat to, not particularly interested in socializing with strangers. Arven is bound to show up at some point; he gets off work in a few, and he’d promised to meet her for drinks afterward at their go-to place.
“Kiddo?” says a familiar voice.
Surprised, Juliana looks up.
Rika towers over her, a drink balanced in one hand.
“Rika?”
“Yep, at your service,” says Rika, waving. “Mind if I join you for a sec?”
Juliana takes her purse off the seat beside her. Rika drops down into it and immediately leans over the table, cheek propped up against her fist. She sort of squints at Juliana, lips tugging up into a tiny smirk.
“So, how’ve you been?” says Rika. “We miss you over at the League, y’know.”
Juliana smiles weakly. “I miss you all too,” she says.
“Ha!” Rika slaps her knee. “Don’t lie to me. I know how you feel about us.”
“Oh? How do I feel about you?”
“Me in particular?” says Rika, taking a sip of her drink. “Well, I know I’m your favorite.”
Juliana shakes her head, smiling. “Never change, Rika.”
“I’m serious,” says Rika, grinning in that easy way of hers. “I know I’ve got old man Hassel and Larry beat. Poppy might be my only competition.”
“How are they, by the way?”
Rika shrugs. “The same,” she says. “Haven’t had any good challengers in a while. Not even your boyfriend stood a chance.”
Juliana raises her eyebrows. “My boyfriend?”
The look Rika gives her is half-sly, half-exasperated. “You thought I didn’t know about that?” she says wryly.
Not many people do, to be honest. They’ve kept it under wraps for a few months now. Penny and Nemona know, obviously, but anyone outside of their immediate circle has been kept in the dark about it.
“Do you keep tabs on all former champions, or is it just me?” asks Juliana jokingly.
Rika raises one slender eyebrow. “Do you want the honest answer or the appropriate answer?” she asks cryptically.
Juliana’s face must be doing something weird, because Rika takes one look at her and bursts into wild laughter. She claps loudly, drawing the attention of a few people sitting nearby.
“You should never change, kiddo,” says Rika. “You’re always a delight.”
“I feel like you’re making fun of me,” says Juliana dryly.
“Never,” snorts Rika. “I’m laughing next to you, not at you.”
Before Juliana can answer, a hand comes down firmly on her shoulder and gives it a slight squeeze.
“Ah, the man of the hour,” says Rika.
Juliana looks over her shoulder. Arven is standing behind her, but his eyes aren’t fixed on her; they’re focused on Rika, and they’re oddly cold.
“Rika,” greets Arven stiffly.
Rika smiles. “My cue to leave?” she says. “Wouldn’t want to intrude, after all.”
Arven’s hand doesn’t leave Juliana’s shoulder while Rika stands up languidly and grabs her drink to go. She waves again, smiling pleasantly, and seamlessly melts back into the crowd.
“Arven, you can let go now,” says Juliana.
Arven immediately does. “Shit, sorry,” he says, giving her shoulder an apologetic rub. He takes a seat across from her and sighs heavily.
“Long day?”
“The longest,” says Arven. “But seeing you makes up for it.”
Juliana smiles, reaching for his hand. Arven winces and looks around.
“Maybe not here,” he says in a low voice.
“Ah.” Juliana retracts her hand.
In the awkward silence that follows, Arven smiles at her and says, “How was your day?”
“It was fine,” says Juliana, smiling back. “I just helped mom around the house.”
“Any leads on jobs?”
Juliana’s smile dims a bit. “Nope,” she says, fiddling with her straw. “Thanks for rescuing me, by the way. Rika was bound to ask about my job at some point, and I wouldn’t have known what to tell her.”
“Were you, uh, hanging out with her for a while?” asks Arven.
“Not really,” says Juliana. “Why?”
“I kinda… don’t like her, is all,” says Arven, which makes Juliana’s eyes widen a fraction.
“Because…?”
“Because she’s a flirt,” says Arven bluntly. He isn’t looking at her.
“Are you jealous?”
Arven frowns, but he doesn’t deny it.
“She’s too old for you, anyway,” he says, as if that answers Juliana’s question.
“She’s also not who I’m dating,” says Juliana, mirroring Arven’s frown.
Arven’s eyes widen. “Juliana,” he says, looking around fearfully.
Annoyed, Juliana stands up and grabs her bag.
“Maybe you should just hang out by yourself tonight,” she says crisply.
“Juliana, wait—” says Arven.
Juliana doesn’t. She grabs her purse and marches out of the bar, not stopping to look back at Arven.
Outside, of course she runs directly into Rika.
“Whoah, kiddo,” says Rika, steadying her when she stumbles backwards.
“Sorry,” mutters Juliana, not bothering to make eye contact.
“Everything okay?”
“No,” says Juliana, perhaps a bit too sharply.
Rika falls silent. She lets go of Juliana’s shoulders and takes a small step backwards, giving her some space.
“Do you wanna talk about it?” she says.
Juliana looks past Rika, staring hard at the doorway to the bar. She waits pointedly for a few seconds. When Arven doesn’t emerge, she nods.
“Not here, though,” says Juliana.
-
They find a quiet sandwich joint down the street.
Rika orders for both of them. She says nothing while Juliana stares listlessly down at the table, not even bothering to check her phone. It’s vibrated a few times by now, possibly with frantic calls from Arven, and maybe even with messages from Nemona or Penny if Arven had gotten to them first, but Juliana hasn’t bothered to check.
When their sandwiches arrive, Juliana takes one look at hers and bursts into quiet tears.
Rika wordlessly hands her several napkins.
Juliana accepts them with a muffled “thanks” and dabs at her face, grimacing when the napkins come away with little dark marks from her mascara.
“Fuck,” says Juliana. “I’m sorry you have to see me like this.”
Rika snorts softly. “Like what?”
“Watery and distraught,” says Juliana.
“You’re still cute,” says Rika.
Juliana’s heart skips a beat. “You are a flirt,” she mutters.
“I’m a what?”
“Dirt,” repeats Juliana, panicking. “I said dirt.”
“Pretty sure you said something else, but I won’t push it,” says Rika, grinning lopsidedly.
They both eat their sandwiches for a bit, the silence between them oddly comfortable.
“Thanks for, um, joining me,” says Juliana. “You didn’t have to.”
“Nah, no need to thank me. I was going to ask if you could hang out sometime anyway. Just didn’t think it’d be so soon.”
Juliana smiles wanly.
“So, what happened?” asks Rika. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Juliana bites her lip. “It’s dumb, actually.”
Rika says nothing. She just nods, waiting for Juliana to continue.
“We had a fight,” says Juliana haltingly. “About, um, you.”
Rika’s eyebrows shoot up. “About me?”
“Yeah,” says Juliana, dying inside. It takes everything not to duck under the table in shame. “Arven doesn’t like you.”
“Oh.” Rika considers this, rubbing her chin in thought. “Did he say why?”
“I think he’s jealous,” says Juliana.
“Why would he be jealous?”
Juliana shakes her head. “No idea,” she says.
Rika frowns. “What a weird thing to fight about. I mean, I did get the sense that he was pissed,” she says. “It seemed like he didn’t want me there.”
“He isn’t usually like that,” says Juliana.
“What’s he usually like?”
“Nice,” says Juliana. “He makes me sandwiches.”
“That’s sweet.”
There’s a lull. Rika picks at her sandwich a bit, eyes distant.
“Do you two fight often?” she asks eventually.
Juliana shakes her head again. “Almost never.”
“So you must be pretty shaken up, then.”
“A little.”
Rika’s eyebrow twitches. She looks irritated for some reason. “Sorry, kiddo,” she says. “I wish I could do something to help.”
“It’s nice to just talk to someone,” says Juliana. “I can’t talk to many people about our relationship. Arven won’t let me.”
“Why?”
“He’s worried about it leaking to the press,” says Juliana.
If possible, Rika looks even more annoyed. “Why would that be a bad thing?” she asks.
“I… don’t know,” says Juliana. “He’s a private person.”
Rika leans back and sighs. “Sounds complicated, if you ask me,” she says. “I’m sorry you can’t just date him out in the open.”
“It’s fine,” says Juliana. “We’re just waiting for the right time.”
Rika squints at her, much like she did earlier. “How old are you again?” she asks.
“Uh,” says Juliana. “Twenty-two?”
Rika nods, as if this has decided something for her.
“You two are really young,” she says. “Sorry, not to be patronizing or anything.”
“No, it’s okay,” says Juliana. “You’re not the first person to say that.”
“Who else says that?”
“My mom,” says Juliana sheepishly.
“So at least your mom knows you two are dating, right?” says Rika.
“She does. I, er, live with her. It would be impossible to keep it a secret.”
“You’re back in Cabo Poco?” asks Rika, smiling slowly. “You should’ve said something sooner. We could’ve met up for coffee.”
“Yeah,” says Juliana, glancing down at her mostly untouched food.
“Something wrong?”
“N-no.”
Rika’s silence speaks volumes.
“Okay, yes,” sighs Juliana. “I didn’t want to tell you that I was back home again.”
“Why?”
“Because,” says Juliana, nervously twirling a strand of hair around her finger, “I didn’t want you to know that I’m stuck.”
“You mean, you’re in between jobs?”
“Sure, that’s the fancy way of putting it,” says Juliana with a weak laugh.
“That’s perfectly okay, kiddo,” says Rika.
Desperate to change the topic, Juliana seizes on the nickname as if it were a lifeline. “Why do you still call me that, by the way?”
“What, kiddo?”
“Yeah.”
“Because you’re a kiddo.”
“I’m not,” says Juliana, frowning.
Rika grins. “If it bothers you, I can stop, Juliana.”
Hearing her own name from Rika sends a chill down her spine.
“Never mind, ‘kiddo’ is fine,” says Juliana.
Rika laughs.
-
They finish their sandwiches and part ways outside of the restaurant. Rika asks Juliana to shoot her a message when she makes it back home.
“Just for my own sake,” says Rika, winking.
The instant Juliana reaches her house, she trudges upstairs to her room and begrudgingly checks her messages.
Over half of them are from Arven. She also has four missed calls, some group chat messages from Penny and Nemona, and a good-night message from Rika.
She opens Rika’s message first and types:
Juliana: Thanks for hanging out tonight
Juliana: I got home safely
Her fingers pause over the keyboard. She’d say more, but she isn’t sure what to say, exactly. “Thanks for not judging me” or “thanks for letting me cry in front of you” seem a bit ridiculous.
Before she can make up her mind, Rika texts her back.
Rika: hey hey kiddo
Rika: no worries, and thanks for the message
Rika: if you ever need to talk to someone, you can talk to me
Rika: i’m probably not your first choice, but i’m here anyway
Rika: ;)
Juliana smiles down at her phone for absolutely no reason.
-
The next day, she calls Arven.
“Juliana,” says Arven breathlessly when he picks up after the second ring.
“Hi,” says Juliana.
“I was so worried,” says Arven. “I’m so, so sorry.”
“It’s okay, Arven,” says Juliana.
“It isn’t,” says Arven. “I fucked up big time. I’m really sorry, Juli. It won’t happen again.”
Juliana smiles down at her blanket. Hearing from Arven soothes some errant, needy voice inside her, but it also ignites a dormant sense of guilt. She’d hung out with Rika yesterday after a fight centered around that selfsame person.
“Do you want to meet up tonight?” asks Arven. “I understand if you’d prefer not to.”
Juliana tugs on her braid and thinks it over.
“Sure,” she says slowly. “Your place?”
-
For a while, things are fine. Arven is a sweet and doting boyfriend.
“Why wouldn’t he be?” Penny asks her. “He’s head over heels for you.”
Nemona says much the same thing. “He loves you more than anything,” she points out one day over lunch. They’d talked about Juliana’s fight with Arven over and over by that point, having dissected it from all possible angles.
Both Penny and Nemona maintain that it was just an off day for Arven. It’s not in his nature to actually be jealous.
“He’s not that type of guy,” they practically chorus.
Both of her friends can’t be wrong. They’re smart, savvy women who care deeply about her. They’d want the best for her, bar none. They’d also want the best for Arven, since he’s their friend too.
So then why does Juliana feel so… empty?
-
A week after her fight with Arven, Juliana gets a series of texts from Rika.
Rika: hey kiddo
Rika: how are you?
She doesn’t answer right away, eyeing the notifications with mild interest before turning away to wash the dishes. She only remembers to reply after finishing up a few more chores around the house. By then, it’s been a few hours.
Juliana: Hey!
Juliana: I’m good, how are you? :)
To her surprise, Rika answers immediately.
Rika: good :)
Rika: battled a pretty tough challenger today, made me think of you
Juliana: Ohh really?
Juliana: Did they win?
Rika: nah
Rika: they’re not you
Rika: clodsire took care of them easily enough
Juliana snorts. Rika has a tendency to pulverize her opponents at the last second, just to convince them they’ve got her on the ropes and are a hair’s breadth away from winning. She really relishes putting hotshots in their place.
Juliana: Sounds very much like you
Rika: ha!
Rika: i don’t know what you’re talking about
Juliana: :p
When Rika doesn’t respond for a bit, Juliana opts to scroll through Rotogram instead. She’s nearly done with her mindless scrolling when Rika texts again.
Rika: how are you and your bf these days, btw?
Rika: if you don’t mind me asking
Juliana stares at her phone, heart in her throat.
Juliana: We’re okay
She hesitates. Are they, though? And even if they aren’t, would it be okay to tell Rika of all people?
Juliana: We kind of just don’t talk about that day
Juliana: So everything is back to normal now
Rika: oh i see
There’s a small pause.
Rika: are you okay?
Juliana: Yeah!
Juliana: Haha
Juliana: Why wouldn’t I be?
-
Juliana doesn’t hear from Rika again until the following day. When she checks her notifications after waking up, she sees a few messages from Rika, all sent at around 3:07am.
Rika: probably not my place to say this, but i think you’re actually not okay. it’s kind of shitty that you two haven’t talked about the fight. ideally you two would have the sort of relationship that values open communication.
Rika: just my 2 cents, kiddo
Rika: don’t hate me for this in the morning
She reads and rereads the messages several times.
She doesn’t respond. Instead, she spends the majority of the day thinking about it.
Later, when Arven calls her about meeting up, she clears her throat and says, “I need to talk to you about something.”
“Yeah?” says Arven.
“It’s about the other night, at the bar.”
Arven falls silent for a few seconds. “What about it?” he asks eventually.
“Why were you so upset with Rika?”
Arven’s sigh sends a dagger right through her heart.
“It’s stupid, I know,” says Arven. “I just don’t like her.”
“But why?”
“I… don’t have a good reason,” admits Arven.
“She hasn’t done anything to you, has she?”
“No,” says Arven. “She’s just… kind of my competition.”
This makes absolutely zero sense. Juliana has to blink several times.
“What?”
“I know, I know,” says Arven. “I sound ridiculous.”
“Your competition how?”
Arven’s sigh is even louder this time. “Can we just talk about this another time? I don’t really want to fight with you over it.”
“Are we fighting?”
“No, no.”
“Then why can’t we talk about it?”
“Why do you care so much?” asks Arven sharply, sounding pissed. “I thought things were going well for us. Why bring this up again?”
“Because I’m still upset,” snaps Juliana. “And you won’t just come out and say why you hate Rika so much. What did she even do to you?”
“It’s not her, it’s you,” says Arven harshly. “It’s your goddamn crush on her.”
“My what?”
Arven abruptly hangs up.
Juliana stares down at her phone in genuine confusion. All of her pent-up rage had dissipated the second Arven had accused her of having a crush. A crush? What?
“Juliana,” her mother calls from the bottom of the stairs. “Is everything alright? I heard shouting.”
“I’m fine, mom,” Juliana shouts back. She clutches her Skwovet plush close to her chest and tries not to break down in tears.
What had Arven even meant by that?
-
Juliana ends up at a random café in Mesagoza several hours later, having told her mom she had other plans for dinner.
She catches a glimpse of her reflection in her laptop screen and grimaces. She’s clearly a mess. Purely for convenience’s sake, she’d done her hair in a quick, messy side braid, and she hadn’t thought to apply any makeup. She looks five years younger and five years older simultaneously.
Her looks are the last thing on her mind, though.
As she sips her second lemonade, she scrolls through her messages for the umpteenth time.
There’s nothing from Arven. Penny had sent a random meme an hour ago, and Nemona had replied with a bunch of emojis, and that’s about it.
She scrolls down past their group chat to earlier messages from Giacomo and Mela and Eri. She even scrolls down to messages from her mom.
Finally, she opens up the messages from Rika again.
Almost without thinking, she types:
Juliana: Hi
Juliana: Do you have time to talk right now?
For a few seconds, she stares blankly at her phone. Had she really just sent that?
She sets her phone down and takes another long sip of her lemonade.
Her phone vibrates. Juliana scrambles to check it.
Rika: hey!
Rika: sure, one sec
Rika: video call or voice call?
Juliana tries not to panic.
Juliana: Voice call please
Rika: gotcha
Her phone rings.
Juliana answers it on the second ring. “Hello?”
“Hey,” says Rika. “What’s up?”
It sounds like she’s closing the door behind her.
“Sorry, are you busy?” asks Juliana.
“Nope,” says Rika. “Just wrapped up work for the day, actually. How about you?”
“I’m just at a café,” says Juliana.
“Nice, that explains the background noise.”
“Sorry about that,” says Juliana. “Is it hard to hear me?”
“Not at all,” says Rika. “Anyway, you said you wanted to talk?”
Juliana bites her lip. “Yeah.”
Rika hums. She waits for Juliana to speak again. If they were meeting in person, she’d probably be watching Juliana right now with those patient, knowing eyes.
“It’s about what you said last night,” says Juliana.
“Ah,” says Rika. “Sorry, I was a bit, uh, tipsy.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, I went out with some friends last night. Got home late and drunk texted a bunch of people. Sorry about that.”
For some reason this makes Juliana’s shoulders sag a bit. So Rika had been drunk?
“I see,” says Juliana.
“I mean, I stand by what I said,” says Rika. “Communication is important.”
Juliana nods, even though Rika can’t see it.
“I actually just talked to Arven,” says Juliana.
“Oh? How’d it go?”
Tears spring to her eyes. “It was bad, Rika,” says Juliana.
“Oh, kiddo.”
Juliana reaches for a napkin and dabs at her face with it. It’s the second time this month she’s cried in front of Rika, even if this time she isn’t physically present to witness it.
“Hey, you’re in Mesagoza at the moment, yeah?” says Rika.
Juliana sniffs and rubs a hand over her eye. “Rika, I look horrible,” she says.
Rika makes an odd, strangled noise. “Alright, I’m positive that isn’t true, for one thing, and for another, does it matter? You sound like you could use some company right now.”
“Aren’t you at the League, though?”
“Nah, I worked from home today. No challengers around this week, so I just sent a bunch of emails from the comfort of my own home,” she explains. “That means I’m still in my pajamas, though. Mind sending me the location of your café, and I’ll throw on some clothes and meet you there?”
Juliana takes a second to consider this. In all honesty, she really isn’t interested in returning home anytime soon. She could definitely use the company.
“Okay,” she says. “Thanks, Rika.”
-
“Here,” says Rika, handing Juliana a gigantic cookie.
Juliana stares at it, confused.
“Thank you?” she says.
Rika laughs, sliding into the seat across from her. Juliana hurries to clear the table, setting her laptop back in her bag and making room for Rika’s elbows and drink.
“Chocolate solves everything,” says Rika. “Just don’t eat that here, or else we’ll get in trouble.”
Juliana dutifully stuffs it in her bag along with her laptop.
“You didn’t have to,” she says.
“It’s no big deal,” says Rika. “There’s a famous bakery near my place. Figured you could use the pick-me-up.”
Despite everything, Juliana smiles.
Rika grins at the sight. She leans forward with her cheek pillowed on her palm, gaze lingering on Juliana’s mouth.
“I’ve never been here before,” says Rika, eyes darting up to meet Juliana’s again. “Do you like coming here?”
“No,” says Juliana. “This is my first time. I just picked a place at random.”
“Cozy, isn’t it,” says Rika, looking around. “Kind of a nice setting for a date.”
Juliana glances around too. “I guess so,” she says. “Would you bring someone here?”
Rika fixes Juliana with a sly look. “I would,” she says. “Although I’d personally prefer the arena as my first date.”
Juliana snorts at this. “Rika, not everyone is a battle maniac like you.”
“Well, that’s fine. I just don’t date people who can’t beat me in battle.”
That narrows down the list considerably.
“So you only date champions?” asks Juliana.
“Nah, they don’t have to be a champion,” says Rika, waving a hand. “They just have to be a woman.”
This isn’t news to Juliana. Still, it makes her raise a single eyebrow, amused.
“Anyway, enough about me,” says Rika. “We’re here to talk about you.”
“Yay,” says Juliana weakly.
“You sounded pretty rough over the phone,” says Rika. “How are you feeling right now?”
“I’ve felt better,” says Juliana. “Um, thanks again for meeting up with me.”
Rika waves this off. “You don’t have to thank me,” she says. “I was worried about you. It must have been pretty bad, right?”
Juliana winces. “It was. We don’t usually yell at each other.”
Rika raises her eyebrows. “Yelling, eh?”
“Yeah. He was upset with me for bringing up the other night again. He accused me of, er, having a crush.”
“A crush?”
“On you.”
If possible, Rika’s eyebrows creep up even higher on her forehead.
“Do you?” she asks evenly. In an instant, there isn’t a trace of emotion on her face. No smug smile, no wary frown. Just a blank interviewer’s mask.
Juliana scrubs a hand over her face. “Rika, I…”
“Sorry, that was a loaded question,” Rika says. “You don’t have to answer it.”
“No, it’s fine. I just don’t know what to say. I think it’s ridiculous that he’s so worried about me having a crush on you.”
“Because you don’t,” adds Rika helpfully.
“I…”
Juliana stares down at the table, mind reeling.
“I love Arven,” says Juliana in a small voice.
Rika nods. “That much is obvious,” she says.
“I’m just frustrated with him lately,” continues Juliana. “He wasn’t like this before. I don’t know what changed.”
“Is he generally a jealous guy?”
“No,” says Juliana, shaking her head. “Penny and Nemona both think that that day was just a fluke.”
Rika makes a considering noise. “I dunno, kiddo,” she says. “Sometimes people show their true colors in public situations.”
Juliana lets this sink in.
“You think he’s really like this?” asks Juliana. “Jealous to the point of toxicity?”
Rika shrugs. “You tell me,” she says. “I’ve only battled the kid once. He didn’t particularly like me then, either.”
Juliana remembers the defeated silence from Arven the day after he’d lost to Rika. They hadn’t really talked that day, not even in the group chat.
“What would you do in my situation?” asks Juliana.
Rika sips her coffee. “I would dump the guy, to be honest.”
“Ah.”
“Yeah, sorry. No mercy from me.”
“He’s my first boyfriend,” says Juliana quietly. “I’ve never done this before.”
Rika nods slowly. “Speaking as someone who has done this before, it’s not easy. Ever. But it’s still important to consider your own needs first. If your partner isn’t there for you, you may need to rethink your relationship.”
Before Juliana can reply, her phone vibrates on the table.
When she checks it, there are a few messages from Arven.
Arven: Hey
Arven: I’ve been thinking about it and
Arven: Maybe we need to take a break
Arven: Things haven’t been so great lately
“Is everything okay?” asks Rika.
Juliana’s face must reflect her shock, because Rika is staring at her intently, brows furrowed in genuine concern.
“Arven wants to take a break,” says Juliana numbly.
Rika’s mouth drops open in surprise.
Juliana sets her phone down. She blinks blearily at the lights overhead.
“You were right,” she says distantly. “He just beat me to it.”