Chapter 2
I made my way towards the back, but before I entered I heard my name on Dorian’s lips and decided to listen in instead.
“Aena will be fine. It’s not like she’s a part of them!” Dorian sounded like he was trying to reason with Solas.
“Fine,” Solas spat out, “She’s dalish! You do understand what people are going to think as soon as they see her here? How could you be so stupid Dorian!?” The sound of a chair abruptly being pushed back echoed from the back room.
“You know what? I think you’re overreacting. Hand my papers over to me and go back to your apartment. You need to calm down.” There was a loud thud.
“How can you do this to that poor idiotic girl?!” Solas was yelling. “Take your stupid papers.” Solas walked out quickly, not giving me enough time to step away from the door. I flinched when he looked over at me with a scowl, but his eyes flashed a different emotion for a brief second. Concern. “Go back home, Aen’aya.” His voice was direct and ordering.
“Lasa adahl su nar masa!” I didn’t know if he spoke elvhen, even if he didn’t the general meaning and emotion of the words would still resonate. That’s just how we elves are. He searched my face before speaking again.
“Dirth’ala ma.” He spat out at me before walking away and slamming the door of the cafe shut. I stood in shock, not only because he spoke our language, but because of what he said. I had never heard that phrase uttered at me before. A shiver ran through my back, no one ever said that half-heartedly. What was I getting myself into? Dorian finally crept out from the back leaning in the doorway.
He sighed, “Solas will be back tomorrow no doubt. I assume he will be trying his best to persuade you to leave.”
“Why? Why is me being dalish so bad?” I asked him cautiously.
“Elves, as you know, are not treated well in the cities. This city in particular is known for it, the protests are not exactly helping their position at the moment either.”
“I knew it was bad in this city, but I didn’t realize they were infamous for it.” How could I have possibly not heard about this?
“It isn’t exactly something they want to advertise, imagine it at the top of their website, “Welcome to Haven, we hate elves, but our scenery is divine!” Yes of course, why wouldn’t anyone visit?” he mocked. Then another sigh. “You can go home for the day, I’ll still give you full pay, but I’m guessing your apartment still needs some work. And after Solas’s… Just go ahead and leave.” He seemed to be in distress. From what Solas and him were talking about, or the scene he had caused, I wasn’t sure. There was no point in staying anyways, the cafe had been empty for most the day.
I wrapped up my apron, put it in my bag and walked out. The bus stop was two blocks away, right in front of an Antivan mom and pop restaurant. Once I reached the store I stopped to just stare at the colors, bright blues and yellows, purple and reds, they did not shy away from adding as much of a “pop” as they could. The windows were actual stained glass, just as colorful as the outside of the building, they depicted a marina, with many boats and even seagulls flying ahead. I adored it, I had never seen a building like this in all my life. It sparked my travel lust, I had to visit Antiva someday. I may have looked stupid standing outside it just staring but I was okay with that. I made a mental note to try it out. Lo and behold when I turned towards the bus stop, Solas was standing right there, his thumbs typing away on his phone. Of course. I cautiously made my way to the stop without him noticing. Eventually however he looked up from his phone and he immediately grimaced at me.
“I’m not here for you, I’m waiting for the bus,” I snapped. I don’t know why I felt the need to explain, but I did anyways. We stood there in silence each of us looking at our phones as a means to not communicate with each other. You could feel the tension a block away.
“What stop?” he asked suddenly. I looked up from my phone to see him staring right at me again. I found myself searching his face, wondering why he was even interested. I also found myself studying his features, his face was long, and his jawline hard. He had the strangest colored eyes, I originally thought they were grey, but when he was in the light they looked different. Instead you could see that the color closest to the iris was grey, but then faded out to the most crystal blue I had ever seen, they were beautiful. Had I not already hated him, I would have found him attractive, maybe even pursued him. When my eyes followed his cheeks I noticed it. He has freckles.
“Freckles?” I wondered aloud, “I MEAN SIXTH!” I flushed pink.
“What my freckles have to do with what stop you’re getting off, I have no idea. Sixth and what?” he asked sharply. How embarrassing.
“Duvall.” More people started to gather at the stop, a few human teenagers who stared at Solas, most likely because of the piercings.
“You live on sixth and duvall? You don’t happen to live in the apartment complex directly behind the stop do you?” he asked again, his eyes widening.
“Yes I do actually.” I answered again. Does he think he’s my guardian?? Get off my ass dude.
Solas groaned in utter frustration, “Fenedhis. That’s exactly where I’m headed, of fucking course.”
I hope you fall into a ditch. The bus pulled up to the stop, and everybody promptly got out their transit cards from their pockets and walked on. I fumbled with my wallet attempting to get coins out of the change pocket. The zipper, of course, was stuck and would not open up. Solas angrily grabbed me by the shoulder and pushed me onto the bus.
“Who the fuck do you-” I started.
“Aen’aya, shut up!” He demanded as he paid for both of us. The driver shot us a “hurry it up” look, Solas glared, as per usual, and still holding onto my shoulder, he pushed me towards the back of the bus. It was on the short steps to our seat that I finally saw some of his concern from earlier in the shop in the flesh. The whole front of the bus sat humans. Humans who were shooting glares of disgust and hate at us. Mostly though, at me. I counted two people who openly pointed at my vallaslin. I heard someone mutter disgusting underneath their breath. One woman even turned her child away as not to look at me. I wish I was joking about it. Their blatant racism was ridiculous, and made me want to get off the bus immediately. Towards the back however was another elf, a few dwarves and the teenage humans who didn’t seem to harbor the same amount of racism as their counterparts from the front. They smiled at us apologetically as we sat down, though still looked wary of Solas. Solas sat me down at the very back in the corner and sat on the outside seat by me. I now understood that he was not doing this completely out of aggressive hateful behavior, there was some concern there. Had I not seen all that I would have burned his arm earlier when we first go on the bus. As much as I hated to admit, he was probably trying to keep me safe.
“Eolasas?” His jaw was clenched down tight and his body was tense. He refused to look at me, frustration written clear around his face. I wish I could say I saw this coming, but I couldn’t. All too soon I was aching to go home. I wanted to feel the welcoming grin of Eisoa, the old woman who ran the bakery at home. She always had spare cookies for the kids and delighted in giving them out. I wanted to watch the kids play futbol in the streets. To hear traditional songs played in the music shop. To smell the fresh pine everywhere I went. I wanted it all. There was no space to be stubborn about him being right, just utter disbelief that this was going on. I had never experienced such blatant discrimination in my life. I felt actual fear for my safety. Something no one should ever have to worry about.
“Vin.” It was all I could say.
We rode the bus in silence for the next 15 minutes. I focused my attention on the bickering dwarven couple in front of me looking for any sort of distraction. Claire, a pretty redhead with a more provocative choice of clothing, was fed up with Hank’s shit apparently and wanted him out of the house. Hank, a more attractive sort who had spent way too much time fixing his hair for the past ten minutes, argued that the two girls he fucked was not his fault- how that worked, I don’t know, but it was as good of a distraction as any. When the woman’s voice over the speaker said duvall, Solas practically jumped out of his seat and pulled me out of the bus by the arm. When the doors were closed he turned on me.
“Now that you understand, and mind you that all you’ve seen so far is how people react to you on a bus, are you going to go home?” Beneath the raised voice and seemingly permanent scowl on his face, his eyes once again held a flick of concern. I thought about it for a minute, genuinely weighing the pro’s and con’s of staying here. The racism was just as bad as he made it out to be, true, but this was my only chance to get off the reservation. As he waited for my answer, his grip on my arm loosened up. I would have completely forgot about his actions prior to the bus had I not noticed that, anger started boiling again. I was no longer weighing my thoughts now.
“I can’t and I won’t! Now stop grabbing me,” I yelled as I pulled my arm out of his hand, “I can have you arrested for assault because of that! And leave me the fuck ALONE!” I stomped away and into the building, purposely slamming the door behind me, hoping it would slam in his face. I made my way up the old stairs to the fourth floor of the apartment complex and jammed my keys into the door of apartment number 2. When I was inside and the door was shut I yelled out in frustration, “WHO THE FUCK DOES THAT!?” I flopped my upper body onto my grey loveseat and screamed into the giant white pillows. My white tabby cat, Daisy, decided this was a good time to jump up and lay down on my back. “Not helping Daisy,” I groaned. She ignored this, and like the assholes that cat’s are, started purring. “You would enjoy my suffering.” She quickly jumped off me as I sat myself back up walking into my bedroom and laying myself onto the messy violet bed covered in clothing already. Could this day get any worse? The Creators answered shortly with a ring of my phone, “Fenris” flashing across the screen.
“OH FUCK ME,” I yelled aloud. I looked to Daisy, who came in at the sound of my pain, being nosy as cat’s are, I told her to answer for me. She responded by playing with the string of one my hoodies. How helpful.
Reluctantly, I slid the green button over and held the phone to my ear refusing to be the first to talk. Not that I needed to if this was going where I think it was.
“Aena?” a female voice questioned hesitantly over the phone. Female?!? I practically jumped out of my bed.
“Hawke?” I asked incredulously. No way in hell. The light accent, but sharp voice sounded exactly like Hawke, but there was no way it was her over Fenris’s phone. They haven’t spoken in years.
“The one and only,” she answered with a nervous laugh.
“Holy. Fucking. Shit. Anders is going to flip,” I blurted out.
“Oh Maker, can we wait a bit before that storm?” she laughed. Emptiness sunk into my stomach at the sound of her laughter, I missed my friends terribly.
“Are you going to stop Fenris from yelling at me?” I asked sheepishly, trying my best cute voice.
“After you neglect to tell all of us you moved to Haven? You’re hilarious. We’ll talk about that in a bit. Can you do me a favor and open your door, I think the package I sent arrived today.”
“How’d you get my- my mother gave you my address, huh?” I walked across my apartment, “ you better start explaining-” as I opened the door there they were. Hawkes black hair and pointed facial features, beautiful cheekbones and the warmest smile in the world opening her arms up for a hug. And Fenris, tall lanky, grey haired grump standing with a box right behind her. I jumped into her arms.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!” I exclaimed jumping into her and pulling her in.