#tweras

“Hey, guys! Sorry we’re late,” Sky said as he hopped onto a tall stool. There were already four waters at the table, one of which Sky gratefully took. Twilight had a nearly empty beer and Eras had a plate of lemons he was squeezing into his water. 

“No problem,” Twilight said with a smile.  

“Zelda couldn’t make it?” Eras asked. 

“No, she had to work. She said to tell everyone hi,” Sky said. 

“It worked out. She would’ve embarrassed all of us with her skills,” Groose said. Twilight and Eras laughed, and Sky nodded very seriously. 

“Plus we haven't had any QPR time, lately, just the two of us.” Sky smiled at Groose. If he was a cartoon character, he was pretty sure his eyes would be hearts. 

Groose rolled his eyes and nudged Sky’s arm playfully. “Quit being such a sap.”

Sky slung his arm over Groose’s shoulder. “I’m buttering you up for your glorious defeat.”

“As if.”

Twilight chuckled, shaking his head and crossing his arms. “You think either of you will stand a chance against me?” 

Eras rolled his eyes and leaned in, throwing a thumb over his shoulder at Twilight. “This was the whole way here,” he mock-whispered. 

“Oh, don’t give me that. This morning you said, and I quote, ‘It’s cute that you think you’ll do better than me.’”

Eras steeled himself as Sky pushed the key into the lock and then twisted the sign to display OPEN. His first day at his new job just officially began. You can do this, he reminded himself. A smoothie shop couldn’t possibly be more difficult than an active war zone. Surely.

“Show time,” one of the other employees said. It was the teenager with pink hair— Legend, he remembered. He flipped the switch to turn the drive thru on then pressed a button on his headset to connect it. Beside them, Herb finished setting up the last of the smoothie equipment, head bouncing to the beat of the music playing through their headphones. They tapped on the order display screen in front of them and it flashed to life.

Sky joined Eras behind the counter and sat on one of the stools in front of the register screen. Eras rested his cane against the counter, low enough that it wouldn’t be seen by the customers, and settled on the other stool.

“You don’t have to worry about hiding your cane,” Sky said kindly. Eras glanced at him nervously, ears pinning back against his head.

Sky smiled softly. “I mean, I’m not going to make you show everyone who comes in, obviously. But I want to be sure you know this is a very disability friendly workplace. I’m disabled, and so are most of the people I hire.”

“Oh,” Eras said. His chest filled with warmth at Sky’s words, pushing out some of his insecurity. He was still learning to navigate his disabilities, so he wasn’t yet confident enough to share them with the world.

“No pressure,” Sky said. His ears wiggled slightly as he spoke.

Eras racked his mind for a proper response. Once again, he was saved by a ringing; this time, it was the bell above the door. The sound was enough to let the employees know someone was entering, but not too sharp of a noise.

Eras straightened his back, nerves alight in his chest, and glanced at Sky. Sky’s posture was relaxed, one leg casually resting over the other and his elbow on the arm of the stool. Beneath the end of the leg of Sky’s pants, Eras could see brightly colored, long socks with cartoon birds on them. He smiled, and turned to face the first customer.

“Hi, welcome to Gold Medallion! What can I get for you?” Sky asked.

The process really was simple. Sky put the orders into the computer and took the payments, then Herb and Legend made the smoothies. There was one drive thru order that Legend took while Eras was watching, but he didn’t focus too much on that. He wouldn’t be trained on drive thru for a few weeks.

“You think you’re ready to try on your own?” Sky asked.

Eras took a deep breath. “Yes.”

Sky beamed. “Great! I’ll watch the first few while you get the hang of it, so don’t worry if you forget something.”

“Okay,” Eras said. There was no one else in line, so Eras rehearsed the words in his head with the background noise of smoothies being blended.

Hello, welcome to Gold Medallion. What can I get for you?

Of course. Do you want to add anything to that?

Can I get a name for the order?

Your total is… Are you paying with cash or card?

The door bell rang. Eras watched as a man in a cowboy hat walked through the door and made his way to the counter.

“Hello, welcome to Gold Medallion. What can I get for you?” Eras asked.

“Can I get one mangonada and one grassamel, please?” The man asked. He had an accent Eras couldn’t place. His voice was smooth— Eras had to hold back a smile at the unintentional pun.

“Of course. Do you want to add anything to those?”

“Nope, just as they come,” the man said with a smile.

Eras tried to smile back, but he was pretty sure it didn’t work. He was too focused on pressing the correct buttons on his screen.

“Can I get a name for the order?”

Cori opened the door and marched straight into Kiri’s office. Kiri glanced up with a slightly surprised expression and raised a single eyebrow.

“What happened to our lesson on knocking?” Kiri said, voice monotone.

Cori took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. “You need to let Eras go outside.”

“No.”

“I’ve been teaching him about insects and you won’t let me bring any inside except my weevils, but they have to stay in my room—“ Cori said.

“In their tank —” Kiri interrupted.

“and he needs to see some in person,” Cori continued. “So he needs to be allowed to go outside to look at insects.”

Kiri sighed and let the papers he was reading fall onto his desk. Cori stared expectantly. When Kiri didn’t answer, he moved on to the next section of his rehearsed speech.

“Twilight says he’s doing great in the greenhouse. He doesn’t want to escape and he hasn’t tried to hurt anyone. I’ve been teaching him about insects and other things too, but we like talking about insects the best. I just…”

Cori paused to take a deep breath and give Kiri his best large, innocent eyes look.

“I just want to show him my favorite bugs,” Cori said.

Kiri sighed and ran a hand over his chin. Cori waited, then started bouncing on his toes as he waited some more.

“You aren’t to be alone with him,” Kiri finally said. Cori gasped.

“Is that a yes?” Cori exclaimed.

“Twilight needs to be with you at all times, and both of you need your blasters,” Kiri said.

Cori squealed in delight and sprinted across the desk to throw himself into Kiri’s arms. Kiri caught him with an oomph , but Cori could hear the smile in it.

“Yes! Thank you!” Cori said.

“If he makes one wrong move—”

“He won’t! I promise!” Cori said.

“Uh huh,” Kiri said. He squeezed Cori to his chest with one arm and lightly petted his hair with the other. Cori beamed, then pulled away.

“The first official bug squad meeting will be tomorrow at noon,” Cori said.

Kiri raised an eyebrow. “Bug squad?”

“You’re officially invited to the first official bug squad meeting,” Cori said.

Kiri sighed. “I’m busy, you know. I can’t guarantee anything,” he said.

“I’ll see you tomorrow at noon, then,” Cori said with a smile as he turned on his heel and skipped away.

“Close the door!” Kiri called behind him. Cori did not close the door.

“Come on, we’re gonna be late!” Cori said.

“It’s not noon yet, you’re fine,” Twilight said with a smile.

“He’s waiting for us,” Cori reminded him.

Twilight had told Eras about their plans yesterday so he could prepare to be outside for the hour. Cori knew it was only supposed to be an hour, but he was pretty sure no one was going to make him go back inside while he was playing with his bugs.

As soon as Twilight unlocked the hallway to Eras’ cell, Cori sprinted ahead. He skidded to a stop right in front of Eras’ cell and bounced excitedly while he waited for Twilight to shut down the barrier.

Inside the cell, Eras stood from his bed with a small but genuine smile. He had every bug book Cori had given him stacked in his arms. It looked a bit funny, Cori thought. He had given Eras a lot of books about bugs.

Twilight finally caught up and released the barrier. Eras stepped forward slowly with his eyebrows furrowed and eyes squinted, all of his concentration on balancing his tall stack of books.

Twilight chuckled lightly. “You think we can lighten his load a bit?” He asked Cori.

Cori nodded and stepped forward to take some of Eras’ books. Eras looked deeply concerned as Cori motioned for him to lean down so he could reach the books. Cori took the top third of the stack and placed them on the floor for sorting. Twilight took the rest and put them in front of Cori. Cori started sorting the books into two piles: one for books that would have Moldak insects, and one for books that wouldn’t.

“We’re going to identify bugs, aren’t we?” Eras asked. Cori nodded without glancing up from his piles. He barely had to read the titles. He had nearly every insect book in the base memorized.

“Insects. Some of these won’t have anything on Moldak insects,” Cori said.

He paused as he picked up the next book, hand hovering in between the piles. The book was on aphids, which could be found on Moldak, but it focused more on Lachnidae instead of Aphididae, which were much harder to spot especially without any sort of magnifying equipment, and it was Eras first ever time identifying insects so he want to be sure they chose easily distinguishable insects—

“Cori?”

“Hm?” Cori hummed, pulling his attention away from the book. Eras was sitting in front of his piles and Twilight was kneeling next to him.

“Let’s try to only bring a few,” Twilight said. Cori frowned and opened his mouth to argue for more books, despite not being finished sorting the books yet.

“I know, I know, the books are important.” Twilight held one hand up to placate Cori and the other hovering near Eras’ leg. “Let’s just bring the most important ones. We only have an hour.”

Cori huffed and quickly sorted the rest of the books. Then, he chose three out of the pile and held them out for Twilight to carry.

“There. Those have dichotomous keys for the most common families on Moldak,” Cori explained.

“Right.” Twilight stood and shifted the books to one arm, then held out his other for Eras to take. He took it with a grateful smile and his brace squeaked as Twilight pulled him to his feet.

“Ready?” Cori asked excitedly.

“Ready,” Eras replied.

Twilight nodded with a large grin. “Let’s go, then.”

They walked through the halls and out the door without encountering anyone else. As soon as Twilight unlocked the doors, Cori rushed outside. He tried his best to not go too fast so Eras could keep up, but he was too excited to move slowly. He settled for walking back and forth across the path to look at any plants or insects he found while he was leading them to his favorite bug spot. Twilight and Eras were chatting about something behind him, but it wasn’t about insects so Cori didn’t pay attention.

When they finally, finally reached Cori’s favorite bug spot, Kiri was already on the bench waiting for them. Kiri stood as Cori ran over to greet him.

“You came!” Cori exclaimed.

“I’m supervising,” Kiri replied, but he was smiling the special smile that was only for Cori. Cori returned it with a wide grin of his own. Eras glanced nervously at Kiri, but Twilight quickly pulled his attention away.

“We’ll set up over here,” Twilight said. He passed the books to Eras so he could spread out a blanket.

While Twilight’s and Eras’ backs were turned, Kiri pulled Cori into a quick side hug and patted his head. Cori started to hug him back, but then he noticed a jar on the bench. It was open side down over a beautiful beetle.

Cori gasped and pulled away to kneel in front of the jar. There was a male Lucanus cervus beetle trapped underneath the jar. It had incredibly distinct coloring and, as expected, huge mandibles. Stag beetles were very distinct, and they would be a perfect first insect for Eras to identify.

“I found it on my way down,” Kiri said. “I know stag beetles are your favorite.”

“Besides weevils,” Cori corrected.

“Of course.”

“He’s beautiful.” Cori carefully lifted one side of the jar and gently pushed the beetle onto his palm. It crawled around uncertainly until Cori covered it with his other hand. He ran back over to Eras and Twilight just as they were settling down on the blanket.

“I have your first insect,” Cori said.

Eras straightened his posture and pulled the books closer to his legs.

“Which book should I use?” Eras asked.

Cori pointed with his foot. “That one.

Eras pulled it into his lap and opened to the first page of the dichotomous key, then looked up at Cori.

“I’m ready,” Eras said. His expression was pure concentration.

Cori knelt down next to Eras and crossed his legs. He held his hands in front of Eras and slowly lifted one hand away to show the beetle. Eras gasped as soon as the beetle came into sight.

“Wow,” Eras muttered. Cori grinned so widely his cheeks hurt.

“I know this one. It’s a…” Eras trailed off and glanced down at the book. He flipped a few pages, then nodded.

“It’s a stag beetle,” Eras said. “You can tell from the— the man…mandibles.”

His pronunciation wasn’t quite right, but Cori’s grin impossibly widened nonetheless. “Yeah!”

“Nice job!” Twilight said.

“Not done yet,” Cori said. “I want the scientific name.”

Eras’ attention went back to his book. He ran his fingers across the pages, glancing from the words to study the beetle. He muttered lightly as he went down the key, until he was at the last statement with only two species options left. His expression tightened as he concentrated, and he leaned closer to the bug.

“Was it… on a tree? Or on the ground?” Eras asked. Cori glanced at Kiri. Even if Kiri didn’t remember, Cori knew which answer would lead Eras to the right species.

“Tree,” Kiri answered. Cori nodded in confirmation.

Eras looked nervous as his finger hovered over the correct species. He didn’t voice his answer right away, so Twilight gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder.

“Go on,” Twilight said.

Eras glanced up at Twilight with a small smile, then at Kiri and Cori. “Lucanus cervus,” he said. Once again, his pronunciation wasn’t quite right, but he got the species.

“Lucanus cervus! You did it!” Cori cheered. He fully unfolded his hands and pushed them towards the trees so the beetle could fly away. As soon as it did, he launched towards Eras with a hug. Eras made a surprised noise and twitched a bit as he likely had to throw an arm out to brace them. Cori pulled away before he could react any further.

Eras was smiling as widely as Cori had ever seen.