The Katissa Chronicles Part 5: Awkward Explanations [closed]

Following the sort-of argument Katy had gotten into with Aoife, Katy found herself wandering aimlessly around the Academy grounds in half a daze. She had promised Aoife she would give serious thought to their situation, but was having real difficulty thinking about it at all. How were you even supposed to begin to try and think about such a messy issue?

Katy sighed miserably. How had things gone from so nice to so muddled, so quickly? Spotting a nice grassy spot underneath a tree, Katy unslung her rifle and sat down heavily against the tree, hugging the gun while staring off at nothing in particular. This seemed like as good a place as any to definitely not think about it.

Melissa had been relaxing up in a tree for the last hours, having spent some time studying in the tree. Up in the branches where she might fall and injure herself if she slipped even slightly, with a wonderful breeze, she found she was actually able to study alone to a certain extent. Noticing a familiar face sitting down below, she attempted to drop down to the ground, but slipped and ended up falling down to the ground on back, right in front of Katy. Close enough.

"Hi! Whatcha doing?" She said cheerfully, despite being on her back and in pain.

Katy blinked at the girl, her problems momentarily forgotten. "Are you OK?" she asked, looking up to the branches of the tree and back again. Figuring that if Melissa had been really hurt from the fall she wouldn't seem so cheerful, Katy sat her rifle aside and attempted to sit in a more relaxed fashion, before picking her rifle back up awkwardly, setting it back down again, and finally settling for pulling her legs up and hugging them while resting her head on her knees.

"I did something impulsive," she finally said, seeming close to tears. "And I think I shouldn't have done it, and now I think things are going to be.. not good."

Melissa blinked in surprise, noticing Katy seemed to be fairly fragile right now. What exactly had happened when she had been sleeping in the trees? Did the academy burn down or something? Craning her head to look, she discovered it wasn't. So what had happened?

"What did you do? Are you okay?" Melissa asked, a look of genuine concern on her face instead of her usual grins and smiles.

Katy looked glumly at Melissa, before opting to stare down at the ground. "I was hanging out with Aoife, and she was talking about her boyfriend and how she thought they might break up," she said, trying to figure out how to word it without explicitly mentioning both Aoife-personalities. "I said something about how Aoife should probably find someone she liked," she continued, taking a shaky breath.

"And then she tried to kiss me, but she wasn't serious, and I got flustered, and then suddenly she was actually k-kissing me, and.. and she was stroking my ears and my tail.. and I couldn't think clearly, so I thought maybe I should be impulsive," she said sullenly. "And we wound up back in her room, and it was, um.. really nice. And then her boyfriend showed up."

Katy sighed, banging her forehead on her knees a few times. "Next thing I know, they've worked out their problems, and Aoife is talking like she's dating both of us. And now I don't know what to do. I don't even know if I want to be dating her, or anyone. And I'm not sure I even like the idea of sharing." She suddenly looked angry. "And her stupid boyfriend, instead of being angry at us like he should of been, just immediately signs off on everything Aoife said!"

Her anger faded, and she seemed on the verge of tears once again. "So there she is, dead set on the idea of dating both of us, and I don't even know if I want to be dating her -- even if she didn't already have a boyfriend, so I told her I needed some time to figure stuff out. And here I am and I'm so out of my depth. This kind of thing isn't in any of the books I've read."

Melissa, sitting up to listen, simply listened with a rather surprised look on her face, mouth gaping open. On the outside, she reacted like anyone else probably would, especially one who had just been relaxing moments earlier.

On the inside however, her mind was in disarray, experiencing an emotion she rarely experienced. She couldn't tell what it was though. Jealousy? Envy? Heartbreak? One of those, perhaps, or maybe a combination. Even after Katy finished speaking, she Continued staring blankly, until a voice in her mind chuckled and gave her a mental nudge.

Looking as if she randomly jumped up in surprise after a period of silence, Melissa spoke somewhat awkwardly, "Ummm... Well umm... Umm... Aoife does crazy stuff like this all the time... Though this is taking it to a new level..." She added in a slightly quieter voice, "And Crying Guy is kind of a wimp so you shouldn't be too surprised by him giving up like that I guess?"

She took a short break and a deep breath to reorganize her thoughts, "I think... I think... The first step is to work out whether you want to go out with her, and whether you like her enough to have to share. If you can work that out, the rest should become apparent with time. If you try it, and you end up liking it, then things are good, if you don't try it and find.. Umm someone else," Melissa blushed faintly, "Then things are also good. Though I guess if you try it and things go wrong then everything ends badly..."

Katy slowly shook her head, still staring intently at the ground. "I don't even know if I want to go out with anyone," she finally said. "I don't really have, um.. well, any experience in any of this." She looked over at Melissa with a helpless expression. "I don't even know what kind of book I'd look for to try and figure this stuff out," she said in frustration.

"I know I don't like how she just.. just decided we were together," she said. "And I tried to tell her I didn't want anything to happen if she had a boyfriend, but.." she added, trailing off. "But she was pretty insistent.. I thought that meant she was going to break up with him."

Katy hugged her knees tighter. "What should I do? What would you do?"

Melissa took a few moments to think things through a bit more, not wanting to give bad advice... But at the same time wanting to simply tell her not to go through with it, regardless of what the best choice would be.

"Well... It sounds like you're either very unsure of things, and you don't really like the idea anyways, do I think it would be better to play it safe and not go out with Aoife." She paused, "You said you got into this situation because of an impulsive decision right? Then I think it would be better to play it safe for now."

Katy nodded slowly at the advice, then sighed. "I'm not looking forward to that conversation," she said. "I promised her I'd get hold of her once I had figured it out, but maybe I'll wait a little bit."

Resting her forehead on her knees, she fell silent for a moment. "This is why I don't do impulsive things," she finally said. "Everything's gonna be a mess now. It's gonna be weird and awkward and I'm not gonna be able to hang out with you guys when you're together anymore."

"I don't think there'll be a problem, I don't think Aoife is the kind of person to let things likes the get between a friendship or cause things to be awkward! And if she isn't... You still promised me you'll let me show you how to have fun! So don't think you're getting away from me that easily!" Melissa said, ending with a smile.

"And impulsive decisions aren't always bad! If you hadn't gotten on a motorcycle with some random girl and a death stalker for a tour the day you arrived we wouldn't be here today!" She added, poking Katy lightly on the forehead.

Katy offered a weak smile to the girl. "That's true," she responded. "I wouldn't be in this mess, though. But I wouldn't have gotten to know you, either." She chewed on her lip, putting on an appearance of serious thought. "I'd say the good outweighs the bad."

Suddenly, an odd question occurred to her. "Um, what were you doing up in the tree by yourself?"

"In the tree? Ahahahahahahah! I was just umm... Wasting time playing games! Yup, that's it!" Melissa said, awkwardly scratching her back in faked embarrassment. She had to keep up her reputation as a lazy slacker who never studied and just ran around having fun, after all!

She stood, resting against the tree, patting it a few times, "Haha, great for resting, this tree!" She said.

Abruptly, agitated by the patting the branch Melissa had put her textbooks on gave way, and they dropped to the ground right in front of Katy.

Katy blinked and looked at the books, not entirely comprehending what just happened. Why had there been books up in the tree? She looked from the books to Melissa, then back to the books before slowly standing up. "Melissa," she said, the excitement obvious in her tone. "Were you studying? Actually studying? On your own?"

Melissa tried to kick the books away into a pile of leaves, but it was too late - they had already been seen, "Nononononono! I was umm... Using them to... Balance out the branch I was sitting on...?" She said hastily, trying up the reasons for the books being there.

"Yes! That's it! I wanted to sleep so I needed the books as a pillow and to keep the branch from tipping me over!" She said, completely making things up, not even sure if they made sense.

Katy grinned and threw her arms around Melissa, ignoring the excuses and pulling the girl into a tight hug. "You're really studying! This is wonderful," she exclaimed. "What made you decide to study on your own? You know I'd study with you if you wanted, right?"

"Nononono! I wasn't studying! I wasn't!" Melissa said, but she gave up, realizing that her lies weren't going to work any more, "...I... wanted to see smarter for next time you helped me..." She answered in a small, embarrassed voice. It was true after all. She was tired of being so dumb and not knowing anything about the subject matter, despite having been here longer (Although it was her own fault for not attending any classes. She still wasn't attending any though...).

Releasing the girl from her hug, Katy sat back down against the tree and beamed up at Melissa. "I'm very glad I'm having a positive influence on you, but I hope you aren't trying to force yourself to study just because of me. I wouldn't want you to try and force it and wind up disliking it more," she said.

"So what were you reading about? Wanna tell me about it? Maybe you have some questions I could help with?" she offered. Anything to keep her mind off her current problems seemed like a good idea, so why not something with someone she actually liked?

"I was reading up on some Faunus history! ...you know, just in case that situation you described the first time happens. Now I'll be prepared kind of if it does!" Melissa said in reply, somewhat proudly, despite the fact that she had already forgotten most of it during her nap. Napping right after studying was apparently a bad idea...

"But Umm... That's enough about my studying!!" She said, blushing in embarrassment. She was meant to be the funny girl who never studies! Who never works!

"Do you want to go somewhere fun then? Get your mind off this?" She asked, smiling.

Katy nodded, getting once more to her feet and scooped up her rifle. "You have no idea how much I don't wanna be thinking about this right now. But where were you thinking? I don't really know any fun places," she said with a small frown. "Well, no places we'd both consider fun, I guess. I don't think you'd find the library particularly exciting."

Katy smiled to herself at the thought that Melissa was brushing up on Faunus history. That knowledge may come in handy if she ever introduced her friend to her parents. Her parents tended to be.. passionate about that sort of thing.

"Wellllll... We could go to the library and relax if you want I guess, I don't mind if you want to! The library is pretty relaxing afta all, I can see why you like it! Or maybe I can show you one of the more scenic sights of the school?" She suggested, referring to the view from the cliffs overlooking the beach. Katy had probably seen it already, but it really was a nice place to simply lie back and talk.

"Ooh we could also go to the city if you want?" She added.

Katy mulled over the options while she slung her rifle across her back. The library sounded ideal, except a nice quiet place would probably lead to quiet contemplation. So that was out. The cliffs sounded nice, and if they were chatting it would probably keep her mind occupied. The city would also be distracting.

"Um, the cliffs sound pretty nice," she said. "Unless there was something in the city you wanted to do? I could tag along if that was the case."

"Nah, let's just go to the cliffs! I can show you cliff diving there, without having to worry about other pesky people getting in the way and gettin stabbed!" Melissa said enthusiastically, grabbing onto Katy's hand and beginning to drag her way over to the cliff area.

Melissa thought back to the last time she had come to the cliffs and the beach below. Wasn't that when those Grimm had escaped from the docks and started rampaging? If she recalled correctly, one had ended up here and was beaten by a bunch of students. Didn't someone get mad at her as well for sitting around and watching or something...?

Katy was oblivious to the events that had happened around the cliffs, of course. They were just slightly before her time. It was probably for the best, though, as the cliffs already sounded a bit worrisome.

"Stabbed?" she asked, half following, half being led by Melissa. "Cliff diving? Is that anything like divebombing?" She very much hoped it was nothing like divebombing. At least if they broke their legs at the school there would be help nearby.

"Yup!" Melissa said cheerfully, "Except without the aiming to brush against someone down below! Just jump off the cliff for fun! It's really fun... But... I'm not sure if I should show you, even if I want to... It uses a lot of dust and I've been running low lately." Melissa said, trying to think of a solution to her dust problem.

"Maybe I could just show you once! And you can hold onto me and join in! There's at least a 60% chance nothing bad will happen, don't worry!" She added cheerfully.

Katy looked worried, but shrugged it off. "Alright," she said, wondering how they weren't going to seriously injure themselves. "Y'know, I should have another weapon stipend from my parents in the next few days," she said. "I could use it to buy you a bunch of Dust. I haven't used any of the ammo I bought with the last one, so I don't really need it for anything."

"Um," she added after a moment of thought. "Can your thruster even support the weight of two people?"