Rising Shards

After we cleaned up from a lovely morning session together, Evy unfortunately had some work to catch up on. I felt a bit bratty as I jokingly whined about it, and a bit sneaky as I was really doing my little complaining performance to follow her into her office. I was genuinely curious as to what work she did when at home, and this seemed like a perfect time.

“Would it bug you if I watched you work?” I asked. “If I’d get in your way and slow you down, just say so!”

“It’s really boring business here, Stel,” Evy said as she rolled her chair up to her desk.

“But it wouldn’t bug you?” I asked.

“I think I have enough willpower to know if we’re really getting derailed with distractions.”

I sat on her lap, which was more than a bit awkward in a computer chair, but I was determined.

“Hi.” I said once I got comfy. The bubbles in my tummy made me feel like I was a teenager with her first crush. “Is this a distraction?”

“A bit,” Evy said. “But I think we can make it work.”

“So is it homework to grade?” I asked.  “If it’s Zeta’s, am I allowed to ask how she’s doing or is that a privacy issue?"

“You did call me to ask how she was doing on assignments before.” Evy said.

“True, yeah,” I said. “Is it weird to bring up my little sister so soon after…?” I almost blurted the last bit out, a fear escaping my lips.

“After what?” Evy asked.

“After sex, dummy.” I said, very lightly smacking her shoulder.

“Dude, it’s been like almost an hour since we finished. You’re allowed to talk about your family. Don’t worry about making it weird because that usually makes things weird.”

“Right, yeah,” I said. “My last partner used to get so mad when I’d bring Zeta up. So I get really overtly worried about that. I know I’ve said that probably too many times before.”

“Say it as many times as you need to,” Evy said.

“She just…we were bad for each other.” I said. “But! I don’t wanna drag down your work with my past drama because I’ll go on forever about this. Get to work, you!”

“Aye aye, ma’am.” Evy saluted and used her saluting arm to wrap around my waist before she scooted us forward.

“Alright, so what do we got today?” I asked. “Correcting papers, sending nasty emails to parents of bad kids?”

“Today, I am doing some doctorly work actually,” Evy said. She brought up some very intense looking essays. “During the school year, my main work at the clinics is to look over medical journal articles. It becomes kind of a side job, but I still see new Cani from time to time.”

“Oh gosh,” I said. “So are you checking to make sure there aren’t any articles going through promoting any dangerous Cani sciences or something?”

“More just grammar and consistency,” Evy said. “I did see one about Pyre Cani that was very messed up that I contacted the journal folks and expressed some concerns there.”

“Wow…” I nuzzled closer to her. “My Evy doing so much good for the world.”

Evy didn’t say anything, but I could feel her get warmer, and from my position on her lap with my arms around her neck, I could see her cheeks redden.

“Do you listen to music when you do this?” I asked. “I bet some chill music would be nice.”

“I do! I have a playlist I can get up if you want,” Evy said. “I just can’t do anything with lyrics because I focus on them too much. Same with podcasts. Sometimes I try to get some audiobooks listened to just to clear out some of my piles, but I don’t retain much. Too much multi-tasking.”

Evy showed me her work playlist, which was some gentle and moody music.

“That’s so nice…” I yawned.

The next thing I remember is waking up, still on Evy’s lap.

“H-huh?” I asked, my voice groggy. “Did I fall asleep?”

“Uh huh.”

“Sorry…” I didn’t even remember feeling sleepy, I was just so cozy.

“What are you apologizing for?” Evy kissed my head. “I got a ton of work done. And you’re really comfy. Which is impressive considering we’re both in a computer chair.”

I whimpered, mad I wasted some of the day napping after a full night’s sleep. I smushed my face against Evy and hugged her tightly.

“You’re so cute, Stel.” Evy laughed.