Chapter Text
It was 10pm and the end of her shift. The redheaded girl grabbed her phone out of her locker. It wasn’t company policy to lock up your phone, but she knew she would be looking at it constantly while working; she was the easily distracted sort.
“Baelz, before you take off for the evening, I got something for ya.”
“Oh?” The short red-haired girl turned back towards her manager.
She handed her an envelope. “I got payroll done early, so here’s your paycheck.”
Baelz eagerly accepted it, her tail whipping behind her betraying her excitement if the look on her face didn’t. She really needed the money. She tore into it and pulled out the check inside.
Her heart dropped as she read the number, it was barely enough to cover half her rent… last month's rent. She realized her true reaction was showing clear as day on her face so she quickly hid it with a polite smile.
“Is something the matter? It should be the correct amount,” her manager asked, seeing her discontented reaction.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s right, it’s just… Can I stay tonight and close up?” she asked. It was only two more hours of pay, but she was desperate right now.
“Oh, well, uh, sure I guess? You’ve already worked 8 hours today, are you sure you’re okay to work a couple more?” She asked concernedly, it was obvious to both of them that this was a money issue, but she didn’t want her employee to overwork herself.
“I’ll be fine, it’s usually not too busy this late, right?”
“You should be good, this is your first time closing though so I’ll run you through a few things before I take off in your place.”
Baelz found herself sitting at one of the tables, half mindedly sifting through her chemistry notes. She only had a few customers during the last leg of the night, and at the present she had none, so she decided to attempt to study a little bit. It wasn't going well.
She was looking at chemistry formulas, but inside her head she was doing rent calculations, how much would she have to work to be able to pay off the rent for the past two months she had missed. If she picked up every available shift, skipped the less important classes, and missed a few practices she might barely be able to start to get the number down, that is if her landlord didn’t follow through on their threat to evict her if she didn’t pay everything she owed by the end of the week.
She groaned, holding her head in her hands. This had gotten out of hand, only a couple months into the school year and she had already taken on so much responsibility that she had to budget her time as well as her money. She was so busy with studying, basketball practice, dance lessons, and council duties that she barely had any time to work and make money.
Baelz has a hard time saying no to things, and it didn’t help that she loved doing those things. She enthusiastically signed up for the basketball team when the form for tryouts was posted. When she heard that the university had dance classes she knew she absolutely had to attend. And when her best friend Nanashi Mumei told her she should put her name in to join the student council with her, how could she refuse?
She didn’t realize that she had accidentally put her name in for the running of student council president, but when she finally found out she ran with it, campaigning her heart out and winning the spot. She was like that with everything, full of a fiery passion no matter what she did. She wondered if that fire would get too bright and burn her out completely.
She was snapped out of her trance when the bell above the door rang to signal an arriving customer. She looked up from the pages she had been pretending to look at to see a tall slender girl with long burgundy hair walk in. Her appearance was extremely striking, even for the usual types of folk who attended this university. She had two pairs of black horns coming out from the sides of her head and her ears were long like an elves, hovering behind her back she had a pair of multi-colored crystalline wings. Baelz had seen a lot of strange people, half-mythical beings and super-powered folk were a regular occurrence here, but something about this girl was stunning.
She shook off the feeling and entered customer service mode. Automatically, Baelz stood up and walked behind the counter, expecting her to order something.
The girl walked up to the counter and held up a stack of papers Baelz hadn’t noticed when she walked in. “Can I put an ad up on your bulletin board?”
“Oh, yeah sure, it’s just over there.” Baelz gestured towards it.
The girl walked towards the bulletin board at the back of the shop and sat the stack of papers down on the table beside it. She looked up at the board with a look of uncertainty, it was already completely full of various ads and posters stuck up with thumb tacks. There wasn’t so much as a hair of free space to put anything.
Baelz, noticing the girl’s conundrum, walked over beside her and said, “You can just pull any of these down and stick it up anywhere, nobody checks the board anyway.”
Baelz had completely missed the implication of what she just said, and seemed to not notice the girl’s dejected look.
“Oh…”
“So, what are ya advertising?” Baelz inquired.
“Oh, um, I’m looking for a roommate.”
A roommate huh? It sure would be a lot cheaper to have a roommate to help pay rent.
“Ahhh, I see, what kind of place have you got?” Baelz lightly prodded.
“It’s just a 2 bedroom apartment, nothing crazy.”
“Seems odd to be looking for a roommate this far into the semester.”
“My old roommate had to leave to do a book tour actually.”
“Oh so you’re only looking for like, a short term roomie then, until they return?”
“Oh no, she’s not gonna be moving back in, her book is doing really well and she can afford better than me.” There was a small note of sadness in the girls response.
“So what kinda rent are you planning to charge?”
“Well…” She was about to respond, but then clued into the line of questioning she was receiving. “Wait, why are you asking?” The taller girl finally turned towards the red haired barista.
Baelz had a big smile on her face, showing her rows of sharp teeth. The ears on top of her head wiggled mischievously and her tail whipped around behind her.
When their eyes met, Baelz noticed something she hadn’t before, the girl had two differently coloured eyes, one was purple and the other was blue, they seemed to sparkle as she stared into them, they were really easy to fall into. She could feel herself getting lost trying to follow the patterns, until the taller girl looked away, embarrassed.
“Oh, sorry, the eyes. It happens at first until you get used to them,” the girl said apologetically.
“I don’t think I’d want to get used to them…” Baelz accidentally responded honestly, “Uh, I mean, yeah, I’m actually thinking about moving out of my current place. The rent is a bit much for my pay here.”
“Really? Well, to answer your question, whatever you can afford to pay is the rent I guess.”
“Wait, really? Not like a 50/50 split?” Baelz was confused by the girl’s answer.
“I’m not desperate or anything, it’d just be nice to have a little less to pay every month, and it’s kinda lonely just by myself.”
Baelz had to agree with her there, before starting university she had lived with her family and they were a noisy bunch, one of her many rat siblings always making a racket at all hours. Now that she lived alone she found that the constant silence was deafening.
“I see. Well, you drive a hard bargain of ‘pay what you want for rent.’ I can definitely say that I am interested in your offer… uh…” She tried to remember the girls name before realizing that they never exchanged them, “Sorry, I didn’t get your name.”
“Oh!” The girl looked like a switch had been flipped and for a moment she entered performance mode. “HiRyS! It’s IRyS.” She said in a cutesy voice and throwing up two peace signs.
Baelz looked at her like she had two heads. “Wha?”
“Isn’t it cute?”
Baelz coughed. In all honesty, it kinda was. “Uhmm, yeah… Anyway, my name is Hakos Baelz, but everyone just calls me Bae,” she introduced herself, but she figured she didn’t actually need to. As the student council president, basically everyone already knew who she was.
They shook hands.
“Well, Bae, when would you like to come check the place out? I have classes during the day, but if you are free tomorrow afterwards…”
“Yeah, I should be good sometime tomorrow, lemme just check my calendar.” She pulled out her phone from the back of her jeans pocket, careful to angle it when unlocking so IRyS wouldn’t see her wallpaper of Vi from Arcane showing her abs. “I’ve got a council meeting from 2:00 until 3:00, but I’m completely free after. When are you out of your classes?”
“My classes end at 2:30, but I don’t mind waiting a half hour for you,” IRyS responded. “Wait, did you say council meeting? Are you on the student council?”
“Uh, duh?” Bae said, confused.
“What, am I supposed to know that somehow?” IRyS responded, annoyed by Bae’s tone.
“Yes! Everybody knows me! I’m the student council president!”
“Oh, you’re something of a hot shot, huh little mouse girl? Well, excuuuuuuuse me.”
“I AM A RAT!”
They both stood there glaring into each other's eyes, trying to keep up the impression that they were both mad. Bae broke first, letting out a tiny snort before completely breaking down laughing, IRyS didn’t last much longer.
“Oh man Bae, I like you, you’re funny,” IRyS giggled.
“Why thank you, I try my best. Maybe I should add ‘comedian’ to my resume.”
“I assumed that was how you got hired here.”
“Oi.”
“Anyway, yes, let’s meet at 3pm outside the main doors.”
“Sounds good." Bae nodded.
"Hey, gimme your phone and I’ll put in my number.”
Baelz flushed, weighing the risk in her mind of seeming weird for refusing and risking IRyS seeing her wallpaper. She took out her phone and opened her contacts, she tapped the ‘add’ symbol before passing her phone to IRyS.
IRyS began pressing on the phone, entering her details.
“So, IRyS, uhhh, what exactly… are you? Sorry for the blunt question, but I can’t figure it out.”
IRyS glanced up from the phone for a moment before returning to typing. “I am a nephilim, half angel, half demon.”
Bae nodded. Those eyes… angel, her attitude… devil. “That makes sense.”
“And what exactly is that supposed to mean, huh!?” IRyS asked, putting on a fake angry tone.
“Nothing~”
IRyS handed the phone back to Bae. “Text me so I can add you as well.”
“Sure.”
“Nice wallpaper by the way.”
“Ack—” Bae felt like she just got stabbed. IRyS had to stifle her giggles in response to this. “I just think she’s really cool… art was nice…” She mumbled.
“Anyway, it was nice to meet you, Bae.” She picked up the stack of papers that she now had no use for.
“You too, uh, did you want to order a coffee or anything before you go?”
“At this hour!?”
IRyS left with her flyers tucked under one arm and a small decaf latte held in the other. Somehow that small girl had convinced her to get something, she was quite persuasive. She made her way back to her building through the dark streets, it wasn’t actually that far from campus, only a comfortable twenty minute walk.
She stopped outside the door to her apartment, it was right above a place called Peko Pizza. Thankfully the place was never too busy, as most of the people who ate there were lazy students who just ordered delivery. She hadn’t had any issues with noise living above them and they let her come in and take a free slice and a soda whenever she wanted, so it really wasn’t that bad of a deal.
She opened the side door and climbed the stairs to her apartment. She unlocked the door at the top and went inside, she immediately dumped her stack of papers into the garbage bin beside the door.
She knew that posters were a bad idea, Bae made it clear that nobody bothered to check notice boards, everyone these days posted ads online, she was too nervous to do that though, she wasn’t the most tech savvy person.
Slipping out of her shoes and coat she threw herself down on the couch. Mulling over the fact that she was going to have a visitor tomorrow, She analysed her living room. There were empty soda cans everywhere and a thin layer of dust covered just about every surface. She had gotten lazy since Reine moved out last month.
With a huff she stood up and set to work, even though it was quarter past midnight. She cleared away all the cans, did some heavy duty dusting, and tried and failed to vacuum the floor silently.
After an hour of cleaning she flopped onto the couch, she was so exhausted from this sudden late night cleaning spree that almost immediately she fell asleep, happily looking forward to finally having some company again.