Rene: Are you all ready?

Lana: (image attachment)

Rene: oh, you look lovely!!!

Rene: kill em dead king ദ്ദി˶˃ ᵕ ˂ )✧

Lana: I don't want to do that

Rene: not literally!!!

Lana: Phai explained. Thank you

Rene: hehe, of course!!

Rene: ill see u after ur shift with dinner!!!

Lana: Thank you

Rene: 💖💞💕

Khaslana is afraid. Very afraid. He’s never been more afraid in his life. Well maybe he has but he doesn’t remember such a time. Has he ever been this afraid? He’s never had to do something so terrifying before. Not in his small memory.

“Phai, have I ever-” he just does not know, worrying his fringe between his fingers until Phai takes his hand away, “-ever done something like this?” I can't remember.

Phai hums, patting the back of his skirt straight and puffing up the tulle. “What do you mean?”

“Is…is this new for me?” Khaslana swallows around a bundle of nerves. “…Not the job, the…my…how I feel emotionally.”

“Have you ever been scared before?”

“Yes.”

Phai hums again. He gets a good look at Khaslana, up and down, making sure everything is juuuust right. He answers, “Yeah. You were scared for a very long time.”

“During the cycles?”

“During the cycles.”

“Oh.”

He honestly feels like he’d rather endure thirty million cycles of fear than go to work. But he signed up for this. He wants this. He said yes and now he has to follow through.

“You know, you don't have to go,” Phai tells him softly. Looks at him kindly. “We’re okay. Rene only wants you to relax and take your time.”

Khaslana shakes his head. He looks himself over in the full-length mirror in front of him. His tail curls in anxiety around his thigh, wrinkling the white tights.

His skirt fluffs up cutely with an apron showing off the café’s logo, and his top complements him well enough. Black and white are what maids wear but he’s sprinkled with little golden accents, matching his hair, eyes, and the tip of his tail.

He thinks he’s cute. And even if he’s scared, he feels good in what he wears. A knot curls in his gut and it sounds like “I hope Nanook thinks I'm cute, too.”

“I'm sure. I want to do this.”

His better half cracks a smile. Gestures toward the door and says, “Well, lead the way!”

In truth Khaslana doesn't know if he can do this. But he wants to and he’s made that clear, so hopefully Nanook will take pity on him.

He only met Nanook a week ago. It was an accident, even though Phai insists nothing is an accident when they're involved.

He'd wanted to try this café that’d been in town for some time. Aedes Elysiae was not a big city and every business that opened was the community's fixation for a month. Khaslana waited until the crowds evened out to visit.

When Phainon saw the manager— Nanook, that is— he did not react well. And Khaslana did not react well to his reaction, and a lot happened that culminated in Nanook apologizing to him. He still didn’t have a good grasp on it all, it happened so fast, but he left liking Nanook a lot. And Phainon was— is— in disbelief about it.

“They’re not a good person. They’re not. You should not get involved with them. At all. They shouldn't even be here…”

“I like them. They were nice to me. What did they do that was so bad?”

Phainon's long-winded explanation went right over Khaslana’s head. Some things still took a bit too much out of his brain to chew on, even if he was more developed than he used to be. In the end Phai gave up and sighed, “If you remembered, you'd want them gone.”

“But I don't remember,” Khaslana had countered. “So I don't want them gone. Do you want them gone?”

“As much as you would.”

“But I don't. So.”

Phainon had squinted at him. And then he rolled his eyes and sighed hard, “Okay, fine. Fine! You're your own person. You don’t need to follow in the footsteps of memories you don't have.”

“Thank you.”

“But I'm warning you, they're bad news. Please take my sincere advice into account.”

“I will,” he kissed Phai on the cheek. “Thank you.”

He took Phainon's warning into account. And, with his words in mind, Khaslana visited the café several times more got Nanook's number and hung out with them outside of their café.

On one of these meetings that were not dates Khaslana divulged his desire to be productive and do something for his community and make something for his life. But his…impaired functioning took a lot of things off the table.

Nanook suggested that he just work at their café.

So. Phainon is not happy with Nanook, but he is happy for Khaslana. And Khaslana is going to turn inside out.

Four paws accompany him as he follows his memory to the café. Even as a dog Phai's body language is far from happy. The twinkling bells of the door, music to Khaslana's ears, sets Phai into a rolling growl.

“Be good,” Khaslana murmurs on reflex. Keeps his eyes low so he can't see people look at him, if anyone's here. He’ll have to get used to people looking at him. And look them in the eyes, too…

“You're early.”

The soft humor in their voice eases his nerves instantly. Phainon’s growling kicks up a notch. He looks up.

Nanook smiles in that warm, melancholic way they always do. It’s like coming home or a hot chocolate or something even better than those. So much better. And he knows, more or less, what the issue with them is. He doesn’t entirely get all the details but the vague strokes have Nanook pegged as something…not evil, just uncaring of humanity. An other that could never understand existence lesser than them.

Khaslana knows all that but Nanook pulls him close by an arm around his waist and murmurs into his hair, “Good afternoon, Khaslana.” and it all becomes just impossible to reach a verdict on. Who's to say he should explode Nanook right here? Who's to say this Nanook isn't a wonderful man with the capacity to love? They seem very different from what Phainon’s told him of his memories.

But Phainon is not happy. And Khaslana always listens to him first. His own little objections sit second place to Phainon, who holds his memory and a good deal more rationality. He’s always listened without doubt to his other half and they've come very far this way. Khaslana’s followed his own whims a few times before and it never ends well. He and Phai have the scars to prove that his own judgement is unreliable at best.

So he pulls away and huffs disapprovingly. “Good afternoon,” he folds his arms, levels them with a flat state and tries to see the same Nanook that Phainon does. He can’t but he tries. That counts for something, he’s sure. “I'm ready to work.”

They chuckle a little like they’re amused by something. “Come this way,” they say, while Khaslana fights a blush. “I’ll show you to our employee area.”

He knows how to act, and Phainon will always be by his side. There’s nothing to worry about…but that doesn’t help or explain the fluttering of nerves in his belly!