It had been a long and mountingly frustrating day, and Besca was ready to scream. Really, she was ready to smoke. She needed it. God, she needed it. Just a minute or two away from everything, all the papers and phone calls, the memos from above laying out interview requests. And now, this business with Casoban and Helburke…

She just wanted to step into the observatory, light up, and stare at the stars for a bit. For two minutes, pretend she was somewhere else, some[i]one[/i] else, who didn’t have to juggle one international incident after another. 

But on the way there her stomach growled, and she remembered that Dahlia wanted to make stew tonight. Two days laid up after losing chunks of herself to the ichor, and the first thing she’d asked to do was cook something for all of them to eat together. The small pack in her pocket lost its luster, and she swerved in the commons towards the dorms instead. 

And lucky she did. Two minutes would have been too many. She’d have missed the sound of them laughing. 

She opened the door to see both of them sat in the living space, cackling like mad. Quinn was covering her mouth, giggling through her fingers. Dahlia had her head pressed back into the pillow, barking laughter out at the ceiling. 

Suddenly Besca felt like she’d just woken up after the best night’s sleep of her life. 

“[color=gray]What’s so funny?[/color]” she asked, tossing her coat onto a rack and kicking off her shoes. 

“[color=skyblue]I told Quinn about the leak from my first practice[/color]” Dahlia said, voice pitching high. 

Besca grinned. “[color=gray]Oh, god. Yeah. Quinn, you should have seen the look on her face the first time we interviewed at [i]Late Night with Laurel[/i], and the PM scurried up to her and said they’d made sure to put her room near the toilet. Priceless.[/color]”

“[color=skyblue]Oh hey, stew should be ready, wanna grab some bowls for us?[/color]”

“[color=gray]Sure, but if you don’t get up here I’m liable to mulch the whole thing myself. Been thinking about this all day.[/color]”

Dahlia got up from the couch, came over to the blue seat and peered down at Quinn. “[color=skyblue]Well don’t eat too much. You probably can’t smell it over the stew, but I went ahead and started baking the cake so we could have it tonight.[/color]” She plucked up Quinn’s braid, dropped it down into her lap. “[color=skyblue]And this one's for you, so [i]you’re[/i] gonna decorate it however you want.[/color]”

She spun on her heel, and made for the counter while Besca poured them their bowls. Dahlia sat down on one side, patting the seat next to her for Quinn, and Besca took a seat across. A few bites were enough to make her forget everything, all the worries, all the stress. Right now she might not have been someone else, but that was alright. She didn't [i]really[/i] want to be anyone else. Besides, sitting here, just the three of them, she felt a million miles away from the Aerie.