This takes place not too long after Darbee and Amber originally met, and a bit before they got together. With everyone out somewhere akin to a food court near the Flats. Darbee has good news for her friends.
A loud and excited gasp found its way to my antennae from across the table, “ohmigod, really!? Darbee, I’m so happy for you!”
I took a second to recoil, Bea sometimes can’t exactly handle how loud she gets. She cycled through shock and embarrassment accompanied by a soft giggle when she saw my reaction. “S-sorry I didn’t mean to get so loud.”
Enette was sitting next to her, and had tilted hard enough away from Bea that one wrong shift would mean she’d hit the ground. Silvia, as usual, seemed unphased by this aside from the slight twitching in one of her antennae. Being the only one of us who lives with Bea and the rest of the honeybees in their hive, she's more used to it than Enette and me.
“Well, I can’t quite follow up on that, but I’m happy for you too, Darbee,” Enette said, sitting properly back in her chair.
“Yeah, I knew you’d probably start hormones soon, but to just walk out the clinic the same day meds in hand? That’s impressive,” Silvia chimed in.
“Mmhm! Today’s my first day taking them, too. I know it’s probably all placebo right now, but I haven’t felt this good in ages!” I said, a grin spreading wide across my face.
“Oh oh oh! I’ll be able to throw so many more cute dresses on you!” Beatrice clapped with a beaming smile.
“She’s not a dress up doll, Bea.” Enette quipped, setting down her large cup of coffee.
“They,” Silvia said firmly.
“Uh, actually – Both are fine, gals,” I said gently, scratching at my cheek, “it’s not that big of a deal.”
“It is though, you asked us to try using ‘they’ more, and I feel like it’s respectful that we do,” Silvia said affirmingly.
“T-thank you. Eheh,” I stammered.
I was embarrassed, I’d never really hassled anyone about my gender stuff. Everyone basically used to always call me a girl anyway, even before I came out. It was almost like everyone else in the garden knew I was a girl before I did. I never had the backbone to correct anyone either, not that I wanted to. Plus it’s not like Enette was wrong, I really do like the sound of both. But I also was grateful, I owe a lot of me feeling safe to these three, and the little bit of consideration goes a long way for that.
“Well, I’m still excited,” Beatrice said, chirping with excitement, “I’m super-super happy for you!”
Her excitement was contagious, and I couldn’t help myself from joyously swaying from side to side. Oh, who am I kidding? I was gonna be a little dancy today no matter what.
I was looking forward to today, summer was in full force and that meant the Flats once again had all of my favorite sweets. Me being in such high spirits from starting hormones today only made it all taste sweeter, placebo or not. Everything seemed brighter, it was nice. It had maybe been five months since I came out to everyone. Having them all sit with me at a table so often really was nice.
We talked for a while, about the upcoming season’s pollination work, about the other small here-and-there updates with everyone else’s lives. Enette’s baby sister, Vera, even called to ask when she’d be home. “Just a little while more,” she said, “I wanna finish my coffee and spend some time with friends, vaina.”
Of course she was already on her third large cup. The baristas here at the Flats’ shop have a special order named after her: large, iced, and strong enough to make even the strongest hearts jitter. I wonder, does she ever sleep?
“So, Darbee. How’s that order of mine coming along?” Silvia asked, catching me off guard after a bit of a lull.
“Oh! Y-yes, right!” I started, “Amelia’s been having me work more on the instrument orders for this year’s Pyre Lantern festival!”
She was giving me a disappointed, yet understanding look. Nervously laughing, I continued, “Plus, uh.. That wood you asked for is very hard to work with. I’m scared I’ll break it with how hard it is to come by too.”
“Wait, you ordered an instrument from Amelia’s workshop?” Enette asked, “I don’t remember you saying you played anything.”
“No. I ordered a bow. From Darbee. Who just happens to work in Amelia’s shop.”
“A bow?”
“Yeah. I’m worried I’m getting rusty, and I’ve been wanting a new one for quite some time now. But, it’s ironic I’m going to have to wait for one made from Late Hawthorn,” Silvia said, sitting back in her chair.
“I’m sorry!!” I cried out, “I’ll get it done as soon as I can! There’s just a lot of orders all piled up!”
“Calm down, I’m not upset or anything,” she said, reassuring me.
“Honestly it’d be a whole lot easier to work on friend stuff in your spare time if you had your own workshop. Wasn’t Amelia ordering new tools in? Maybe she’d let you have her old ones,” Enette asked.
“Yeah! You work so hard for her when you’re not out in the garden pollinating with us! I’m sure she’d be willing to give her old tools to you!” Beatrice chimed.
Amelia Harper, my boss and mentor, was a kind woman. One of the older bugs in the garden. She is a rather successful luthier, and runs a well-kept woodwork shop a small way from the Honeybee Hive. Originally, I wanted to pick up a little bit of woodworking as a hobby, but it quickly became a very promising job for me working under her. One of the first things I ever did was carve out my own reed flute. It’s not perfect, but it’s mine. I haven’t been working with her for too long, but she’s already trusting me to work on so many important orders, it’s a hair’s width to being overwhelming. That being said, it is nice to have something else to do when every other bee and I are done tending to all the flowers across the garden.
“That’d be the dream, yeah? I’d love to have a nice workshop at my place. Wouldn’t be too much work to get it set up if I had the tools. Whether or not Amelia gives them to me? I wish..”
Adjusting myself in my chair with a slight slump, I continued. “But yeah, I’m sorry Silvie, it might take a while. I wasn’t expecting so many fresh orders.”
“Darbee, you’re doing that thing again where you say sorry way more than you need to. I told you, it’s alright. I’m patient,” Silvia said, rolling her eyes.
“Besides, I get enough of that from Bea back home,” she continued, causing Beatrice to giggle a little.
“I’m sorry!” Beatrice jokingly chimed, almost singing as she said it.
I just nervously chuckled, rubbing the back of my neck. The two of them just started laughing, even Enette smirked a little. She ended up nudging me a little and that broke the seal and I started cackling too. Fully absorbed in the silliness of the moment. It was cut short by Silvia’s eyes locking behind me, with her giving a subtle gesture to turn around. “Uh, I hope I’m not interrupting anything?” the voice from behind me said a little sheepishly.
I turned around, maybe a little faster than I usually would because I knew that voice. Sure enough, it was her. I felt my heart pulse through every small part of my body. “A-Amber?” I stammered.
“Wasn’t expecting to see you here. Darbee, was it?” she said, with a slight grin.
I’m guessing my reaction to seeing her wasn’t all that subtle. I nodded quickly and she pulled a chair from the table next to us and sat in it backwards, leaning on the back of the chair. She was about as close to me as she could get without touching me. “Wait, you’re Amber? Ohmygod, Darbee you’re right she is pretty!!” Beatrice exclaimed.
“Bea!” I whined as my face started burning.
“Oh? She’s talked about me?” Amber asked with her own face starting to blush.
“That’s right! She hasn’t stopped talking about the wonderful person who saved her from that big bad storm last month!” Beatrice continued.
“Honestly, I’m surprised they haven’t brought you up yet today. The ‘cool girl in the leather jacket that saved me!’” Silvia said, mocking me in the process.
“Not you too!” I cried out, burying myself into my arms on the table.
The three of them started laughing at that point, and I just hid myself deeper. “Honestly though, thank you. I’m glad someone was there to help her during that flash storm. It was too dangerous for any of us to have stayed out.” Antoinette said, reaching over and putting her hand on my arm in support.
It didn’t help much, but at least she wasn’t joining in on Silvia and Beatrice’s antics. “Plus, it’s been nice to see her be happy and gush over someone for once. She’s usually really reclusive about this stuff,” Silvia chimed in, finally over her bit of laughter.
There was a small pause followed by a slight giggle from Bea. What now? I tried to dig a little bit more into my arms, but I felt everyone’s eyes on me. The pause was broken by Amber calmly speaking up. Asking, “I’m sorry, did we overdo it a little?”
“No. Just. You all caught me really off guard and I –” I started, raising my head up and meeting those vivid green eyes of Amber’s.
She had adjusted to get even closer to me while I was hiding in embarrassment, and my entire ability to speak just left me. Seeing this, she just smirked at me while I sat there blinking at her. She tried again to break the silence, “I take it you’re not usually like this?”
Shaking my head no as my gaze remained locked on her, she kept smiling. She was just sitting there calmly in a well fitted shirt and jeans. But she wasn’t wearing that nice jacket I’ve commented on and off to the girls about. It was a fairly warm day, so maybe her jacket was a bit too heavy to wear? Her figure really was on full display. I began wondering a bit if I’d have the confidence to wear something like that soon? I also hoped she wouldn’t take too much notice at me looking her up and down like I was. It was really hard not to. After a point, I think Bea, Silvia, and Enette each said – something to me? My name, maybe, and questions about me being okay? I was struggling to pay attention to anything other than the bright emeralds in front of me. I could hear my pulse through my antennae, but my heart felt still. And it was like I was hyperventilating yet somehow I felt perfectly calm with every breath. All of this lasted until the instant Amber gently raised my head up with her index finger and thumb, asking, “hey, are you okay?”
I wouldn’t have been surprised if her hand started melting or bursting into flames at that exact moment. My mind and body underwent a full system reboot, and my face went all flushed and it felt like it was on fire. I didn’t expect her to touch me at that moment, and the shock of it was enough to stop me from my zoned-out dissociative state. Even if it did make me bury my face into my hands and just murmur out, “y-yeah I’m fine!”
“Wow, I wasn’t expecting to see ‘under someone’s thumb’ be so literal today,” Enette snorted.
That made three, I had become the source of amusement from all my best friends today. Beatrice started giggling again, and then Silvia and Enette followed. Even Amber joined in a bit. She had a really sweet laugh. I took a moment to take a deep breath, and tried to calm myself.
Amber then, after letting me calm down a bit, finally started talking again. “See, I don’t just usually barge in on conversations like this. But I wasn’t sure if I’d get the chance to see you again any time soon after last time,” she explained, “and last time, having kept you from drowning like you almost did wasn’t exactly the best of times to bring this up, but –”
Silvia gave me a stern look, I hadn’t told everyone just how bad I was caught out in the flash thunderstorm that hit us recently, I didn’t want them to worry. Then, after pulling out a crumpled up bit of paper, Amber tried to hand it to me, continuing what she was just saying. “Me and my band are going to be playing at the King’s Cap tonight and I was hoping I could try and get you in tonight to come see us? I’d love to talk with you after the show too.”
“Huh? Oh! I’d love to,” I exclaimed as I felt myself lighting up, “it sounds like it’d be really fun!”
“Uh, Darbee?” Silvia interjected, “Are you sure about that? King’s is usually busy this time of the week. That’s a lot of people, and a lot of noise.”
“Well, I mean. You don’t have to if it’ll be too much for you,” Amber said with a bit of defeat in her voice, “I thought I’d still ask.”
“Nonono I’d love to, really,” I tried to reassure her, “don’t worry! I can just wear my storm covers tonight, they’re a little bulky but they’d still let me hear you playing without me getting too overwhelmed!”
Silvia smiled, “well, as long as you think you’ll be okay,” her attention went to Amber, “is this just an invitation for them, or can we all go?” she asked.
“Oh! Right, yeah you all can, sure. I can make sure you have good seats tonight too,” Amber replied with a hinge of surprise.
“But,” she continued, “that might mean you have to show up early,” and once again those wonderful eyes of hers fixated on me, “and, seeing as I know where you live at least. I could probably pick you up?”
It felt like I was about to fly right out of my chair when I gave her a cheery, “yes! I’d love that!”
“Great! It’s at nine tonight, so I’ll pick you up at six and you can help us get ready backstage too?”
Nodding enthusiastically, I started dancing a bit in place and again Amber giggled. Beatrice started beaming again, “ooooh, Darbee’s got a da~ate!”
I began to shrink again a little, and Amber just coughed a little while she started blushing. “I should get back to what I was doing – See you tonight!” she said before waving all of us goodbye and hovering off to who I assumed were her friends. A spider and a ladybug both greeted her. The spider in particular was wearing Amber’s jacket and started hugging her as they got close enough. She started poking Amber in her sides before Amber playfully pushed her a bit, and Amber started hiding in her hands just like I did a moment before. “Oh, would you look at that? Seems she can dish it, but can’t take it,” Enette commented before trying in vain to loudly get the last bits of coffee from the ice in her cup.
I turned back towards the girls with a huge smile on my face. Looking around, they were all happy too. It didn’t take long before Beatrice started dancing herself, and she asked “So what do you think she wants to talk to you about after the show?”
“I don’t know, but I’m hoping it’s something along the lines of me getting to see her again after tonight,” I replied.
Silvia gave me a warm smile before tapping on her left wrist where a watch would normally be, saying “seeing as she’s picking you up so early maybe you should run home now and make sure you haven’t lost your ear covers again? It’s already almost four.”
She started pointing up at the nearby wall clock, and she was right. Where did all the time today go? It didn’t feel like much time had passed since we sat down. Feeling a rush of urgency come over me I hopped up nodding in agreement, “right, yeah! I probably should,” I started, “I’ll go ahead and go get ready! See you all tonight!”
I gave them all a quick heart gesture with my hands, with them doing the same in return as I took off. This really was shaping up to be one of the best days I’ve had in a real long time, and I was more than looking forward to whatever else tonight had in store.
