Min
The bed felt empty, so she opted to sleep on the sofa.
It had been several days since the funeral, and several weeks since she had last seen Rand. She had been with him until the very end, fighting alongside him for years. A soldier, she never rose through the ranks as well as he, but she fought just as hard. Their mutual want- no, need- to fight was just one of many things that brought them together. Min had been with Rand the longest, and losing him felt like she had lost those years of her life, though in the past few days, she felt as though she had aged as many.
The day after he died, she could not sleep. Lying on an empty bed, alone, it was an unfamiliar thing to her, so she simply curled into a ball, and waited for morning. On the way home, she was exhausted, but still could not sleep. Upon arriving at her old, strange apartment, she realized how difficult sleep would become. By now, one might expect her to have learned to sleep alone, but Min found it almost impossible to sleep at all. The dreams, mainly, were the cause of that- little scenes, brief moments of wondering. Had she done something different, would he still be alive?
Now, she was in a ditch. The trenches. Just her, and Rand, both stranded without any weaponry, without any aid. In any romance novel, or movie, or anything like that, they would have been expected to kiss, but that was no romance. Instead, they talked of plans, of ideas on how to rejoin their group, how to safely cross to the next station, what to do, how not to die. That insignificant hour of panic, of sounds of crossfire and shouts and screams all around.
"Do you trust me?"
His voice was muted, distorted. At first, she thought it was because of the chaos all around them, but as he kept talking, the words became incoherent, though his tone became more insistent. She reached forward, to pull him closer, to understand what he was saying, but as her arms moved toward him, the world shrank away. Everything warped into a sort of tunnel vision, as Rand smiled, and lowered his helmet. He began to run, and so did she. He disappeared, though, into the horizon, into the chaos, while she descended into nothingness.
Min woke from the dream groggily, and glanced at the clock on the wall. Only three hours had passed since she had settled on the couch, the longest night of rest yet. Neither the sun nor the rest of the building was up yet, but the traffic and the lights outside still roared brightly.
Her white dress was draped carelessly over one of the stools at the island of her kitchen, and she wiped the cold sweat of her hands on it as she passed. Not even bothering to turn on the lights, she hissed at the blaring brightness of the refrigerator when she opened the door. The sight was an unpleasant one, as Min lived like a bachelor; the contents were barren, even for a single person. A jar of mustard, a few tomatoes, and some spoiled milk, nothing else. Disgruntled and weary, Min let out a quiet groan, and slammed the door shut. In response, the milk in the door sloshed loudly.
Min considered for a moment heading straight out in her current state, before she remembered that she was not wearing any pants. Still half asleep, she wandered back to her bedroom, and kicked the door open. Most of her clothes were scattered all over the floor, as she had rooted through them to find a dress appropriate for the occasion of her boyfriend's funeral. She had ended up having to run to a little outlet a few blocks away to buy that white dress, which she swore she would never wear again. It was much too clingy and revealing.
One pair of sweatpants, one tank top, and one heavy jacket later, Min left her apartment. She was out of the building before she realized that she had forgotten shoes, but a moment later, she forgot to care, as her calluses were thick enough to compensate for the lack of slippers.
A 24 hour cafe just down the street welcomed Min, as she shuffled in lazily. The waitress on duty hardly noticed her entrance, as she was barely awake herself. Min waited several minutes before clearing her throat, and catching the attention of the barista. Walking behind the counter, the waitress coughed a few times, and mumbled some sort of greeting to the earliest- or latest, depending on how one thinks about it- customer of the day.
"Bagel, and some coffee. Doesn't matter what kind."
The waitress nodded, and shrank behind the counter, searching through the baked goods for some not stale piece of pastry. She hummed something for a moment, before standing up again. "Coffee first, then." Robotically, she began to go through the motions of making coffee. "Cream, sugar?"
"Black." Min scrunched up her nose, and bent over a bit to look at the nearly empty cabinet of pastries. As she searched, she could not find a single bagel. Croissants, tarts, and other sweet goods were all over the place, but there was not one bagel that she could find. Sourbread, english muffins, biscuits, but no bagels. "No bagels?"
The waitress shook her head, and Min felt an irrationally hot anger boiling up within herself. Retaining an outer calm, she took the coffee, and paid quietly, and left the cafe. Shuffling on the sidewalk away from her apartment, out into the town, Min wondered where she might be able to find a bagel. Two cafes and three general stores later, she found herself still without a bagel, though she had acquired five more cups of coffee. The caffeine finally kicked in, and woke her up almost completely.
It was only after that sixth cup that Min realized where she had ended up. She stared up at the police station across the street, the lights blindingly bright, the people within clearly exhausted. Turning around, though, she recognized the building in front of which she stood, and relaxed into a smile. The crotchety apartment complex was old enough that one need not be buzzed in to enter, though a key for each individual apartment was still obviously necessary.
Min climbed the stairs wearily, clutching the railing with both hands as she did, for she could not quite see the path ahead, having neglected to bring her glasses, or to put in her contacts. On the fourth floor, she wandered over to the third room on the hall, and considered knocking. Not wanting to disturb the tenant, she instead simply brought out her own keyring, and attempted to unlock the apartment door.
Aviendha had changed the locks.
Bitterer now than ever, Min lost any pretenses, and raised her fist, ready to wake Avi. However, before she could knock, she remembered Aviendha's cautious tendencies, and pushed herself up onto her toes, raising her hand to the top of the doorframe. Much to her satisfaction, Min discovered the spare key, and unlocked the door as quietly as she could.
If Min's apartment was a mess, Aviendha's living room could only be quantified as a disaster. However, there was a sense of order within the chaos, and Min easily spotted the path to her goal. Gingerly tiptoeing around piles of things, clothes, DVDs, and the like, Min made her way to the kitchen. In complete contrast with the previous room, the kitchen was rather spartan in design, though well stocked. To her delight, Min soon discovered that which she had came for- a bag of bagels, though not yet halved. Thusly, she began to search for a knife.
A floorboard creaked, and Min's heart jumped to her throat. Finding the board filled with blades, Min drew out the large bread knife, and held it up, ready to strike the intruder. A moment passed before she realized that she was the intruder, and so, she lowered the knife. As soon as the knife clattered onto the kitchen counter, though, Aviendha tackled Min, and she watched sadly as both she and the bag of bagels clattered to the ground.
Pinning Min's hands to the tile with her own, and sitting on her stomach to keep her down, Aviendha suppressed a shout into a weary, panicked whisper. "What the hell are you doing in my apartment?"
Min let out a chuckle, and flexed her feet, being the only things she could move at the moment. "I just want a bagel." A moment passed, and she felt the weight of Aviendha lifted off of her stomach. Another moment, and the lights flickered on.
Aviendha, like Min, wore little to sleep. A shirt and shorts, and apparently, her badge and gun. Her face was lined with exhaustion, along with some other sort of sickness. "Min." Her voice had some mix of relief, and annoyance, in addition to its usual richness, though she sounded a bit hoarse. Aviendha took a step closer to Min, and set her revolver on the kitchen counter. "Min, what the fuck."
Min knelt to the ground, and picked up the bag of bagels. Wordlessly, she pulled one out, and set it on the counter, and began to slice it carefully in half. "The cafe was out, and I was hungry."
"You could have called! Or, you know, waited until a decent hour to come by! How did you even get in-" Aviendha threw her hands up in frustration, then let one flop back to her side. "You know what? I don't even care." With the other hand, she grabbed her revolver, and tucked it into the waistband of her shorts. "I'm going back to bed."
Min looked down at her bagel, which she had begun to butter, then up at the retreating figure of her groggy friend, and frowned. "Sophie's choice." Her mutter did not reach Aviendha's ears. In the following seconds, she reached an internal compromise, and let out a sigh. Setting down the bagel, she quickly wrapped it in a paper towel, for later consumption. After a moment of regret, she followed after Aviendha, turning out the lights as she walked.
"Avi, you know you don't have to sleep with your gun, right? I mean, no one's going to kill you in your dreams or anything. You..." She trailed off upon reaching Aviendha's master room, as the bed was empty. "Avi, you alright?" Min heard the sounds of retching from the bathroom, and sprinted in, jumping over the bed to reach Aviendha as quickly as possible.
Hunched over the toilet, Aviendha's face was buried in the seat, both hands perched on the edge. Min rushed to her, and with one hand, gently gathered up her hair, and held it back, as Aviendha vomited in between groans of misery. Silent, without a single sarcastic quip, Min placed her free hand on Aviendha's back, trying to soothe her as she brought up the entire contents of her stomach. Several minutes of this passed, before Aviendha finally stopped, and sat back. Min released her hair, which took longer than expected, given the amount of knots and tangles in the mess.
"Are you sick?" Aviendha shook her head, and Min felt Avi's forehead with the back of her hand. "You feel a bit hot..."
"I think I caught some bug at the funera... been puking for days. I can still go work, they need me." Min raised an eyebrow, and Aviendha waved a hand dismissively, leaning her head back, against the tiled walls. "Just need to sleep it off. I'm fine. Help me get back in bed."
Min obliged, standing up quickly, and offering her hand to Aviendha. Pulling her up, Min offered a shoulder for her to lean on, and guided her in the dark towards the bed. Just like the rest of her apartment, the furniture was minimalist in design, but just comfortable enough. The mattress, though, was rather hard, and Min found the lack of pillows somewhat disturbing. However, Avi quickly relaxed once lying down, and that brought a smile to Min's face. "I'll just head out, then, Avi. Hope you feel-"
"Can you stay with me?" Aviendha sat up, and looked at Min, squinting, peering through the dark at the awkward figure almost out the door. "I don't like being alone."
Min nodded, then realized that Aviendha could not see her. "Oh- Yeah, yeah, of course." Min spoke in the sort of whisper of a person who does not quite know how to whisper correctly. She took off the heavy coat she was wearing, and dropped it carelessly on the floor. Stretching her arms above her head, Min sat down on the edge of the bed, and looked over her shoulder at Avienda. Already, she was falling back to sleep, and Min felt a smile spreading across her own face. Quietly swinging her legs onto the bed, she pulled the sheets and covers over herself, and moved closer to Aviendha.
"C'mere, you're warm." Aviendha pulled Min close, and laid her head on Min's chest, embracing her with one lazy arm.
Min closed her eyes, and gently stroked Avi's hair with one hand. At the same time, she wrapped one leg around Aviendha's, bringing her close enough that neither risked falling off of the narrow bed. Min felt herself drifting within minutes, and with one last moment of clarity, muttered, "Good night, Avi."
Avi only gave a muffled snore in response.