Six Years Before, Gay Ever After

Chapter 6

*Continuing from the previous chapter*
"Hey, it ain't so bad," Namaari said as she stepped into Raya's room. The bed as done, everything was in place—

—"except my study table," Raya laughed as she pointed across the room, and the beautifully carved polished wood table was stacked with books on dragons, and a notebook on top. Pens and pencils were stuffed into holders,and papers everywhere.

Tuk tuk was curled up under the covers of Raya's bed, hearing his owner's voice, he squeaked loudly and tried getting out, but the sheets were heavy so he was struggling. He smelled something, yes, definitely he smelled his owner coming, but there was something else, a outsider, a stranger, that got him excited like crazy. Outside, Namaari noticed where the squeak came from, and nearly jumped when she something wiggling under the blankets of Raya's bed, it's round, it's something... "Hey Tuk tuk, come on, let me help you get out of that," Raya laughed and pulled the blanket off Tuk tuk. Tuk tuk blinked at the sudden pool of light on him and shook his head, and squealed happily when Raya picked him up and nuzzled his fur.

"Is that your pet?" Namaari asked, "he is insanely cute." It is so freaking cute!!!! Namaari longed to touch his fur, and reached a finger to touch his shell. "Yeah, he is... uh... an interesting breed actually, part-pill bug, part-pug, I found him one day when I was in the woods, all alone, so I picked him up and went home," Raya said and talked to Tuk tuk, "Now, no biting, she is NOT food, say hello to Namaari from Fang." She held up Tuk tuk to Namaari, Tuk tuk looked at her, she doesn't look like food, but from Fang... huh, Heart's biggest enemy, wit lots of cats, I hate cats. But when Namaari gently tickled him, he immediately changed his point of view of her.

"Huh, so you want to be an artist or what?" Namaari mused as she picked up one the papers lying on the table, and it was drawing of the sunset. "Nope, I just draw for fun, studying how to be a chief is tiring, so I just doodle abit," Raya explained and held up one of her 'Laws of Kumandra' book, her Ba told her to read it, but she got stuck on page three and stopped reading.

"That makes me think, what hander are you? Like the hand you use to write with," Namaari asked, held up her right hand and said, "I'm a right handed."

Raya rolled her eyes and held up her left, "That's good, I'm left, my Ba is a rightie, and it is annoying that not a lot of people are lefties but there are so many righties."

"Well, that means you are special," Namaari winked, this girl is amazing, how am I supposed to betray her? She's so... special.

Raya smiled and laughed, this dude is one interesting girl, I've never been told other than Ba I am special.

"Come on, let's go to my favourite place, training grounds," Raya pulled Namaari out of her room, it was only a day they can hang out together, so she suddenly had so many plans! She wanted to show her the library, her secret hideout, the kitchen, everywhere actually.

"You like training too?" Namaari questioned, voice going higher, she couldn't believe it! A future warrior for their land too?

"Yea! Do you?"

"Oh my gosh, me too!"

"Looks like we got a lot in common," Raya was elated, incredible, she thought, her new friend who she had met for just 2 hours, has shared so much in common.
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"Ya hungry now right?" Raya raised her eyebrows when she heard Namaari's stomach growl, Namaari's face instantly blushed and she nodded. "Let's go eat then, everyone is already eating," Raya led her to the ballroom.

Entering the ballroom, it was elegantly decorated with cloths with beautiful batik paintings, vases with detailed designs filled with orchids, frangipannis and many other common Southeast Asian flowers. Raya's father came to them, "Are you having a good time, my Dewdrop?"

"Yea, can you tell Rohan to serve us some food?" Raya asked, referring Rohan as the servant in the kitchen.

"Of course, what's your name little one?" Chief Benja knelt down and asked Namaari gently.

"She's Namaari, from Fang," Raya helped with the introductions.

"Nice, hello Namaari, have fun okay? Raya can be a little—" Benja looked at her daughter cheekily— "Hyper." Raya rolled her eyes and punched her father playfully on the shoulder, "No I'm not." Benja just laughed and walked away, waving a hand at Rohan and pointing to the girls.

The girls sat down and it was quiet for awhile, and Rohan came quickly with plates of food. Rice, stew, satay, tomyum soup, and many others were laid out on the floor. Namaari stared at the plate of rice, there isn't much rice in Fang. "Makan time!" Raya said and begin to dig in. Namaari ate slowly and watched the way Raya ate, she didn't want to miss out a single movement made by her.

Soon, they started up another game of knowing more of each other, and their family too.

"You lost your dad?" Raya asked seriously, she didn't want to trigger something in Namaari.

"Nah, he's... I don't know, ran away I think," Namaari said softy, looking down.

"Oh... my mother ran away too...," Raya said. There was silence for awhile. Namaari started up again.

"So, my mother is a terrible joker. Once, she cracked a random joke to try to make the head of the army laugh, I didn't know why she wanted to, and you know what she said? Cuz the head of the army was sort of wasting some time, and she said 'Why did you throw your clock out of the window? Because you want to see time fly' and she laughed at her own joke while I saw General Attitaya raise her eyebrows," Namaari complained.

"She really said that?" Raya laughed, her father was like that too. Just that the jokes were much lamer.

"Yeah, awkward right?"

"Ahahah, okay next question. Hand to hand? Or blades," Raya smirked as she picked up a satay stick stuck with two crispy seasoned balls, offering it to Namaari.

Namaari smiled and picked up the stick swiftly and swirled it on top her head like a sword, "Blades all day!" She pulled one ball out and ate it, gesturing Raya to take the other one.

"I know right?" Raya laughed again. Using swords are waaaaaayyyyyy more interesting way to fight than boxing.

She munched on the crispy ball as Namaari went on, "Okay, dressy, or casual?" Raya almost choked on the word 'dressy', "Only a total monster would wear this kind of outfit on the regular," she used her finger to pull the collar of uncomfortable formal blue dress in disgust. "Uh, rice or stew?" Raya quickly thought of the next question, she couldn't take her eyes off Namaari, she's beautiful.

Namaari suddenly went silent for a moment, and Raya regretted for asking that, did I say something wrong? Namaari saw Raya's face drop, and said assuringly, "It's nothing, actually, this is one of the few times I ate rice in a while." "Oh...," Raya sighed, I thought Fang was pretty well off? "Fang looks pretty nice on the outside, but we got some pretty big holes on the inside," Namaari explained sadly, hearing her mother's words again, you need to betray this girl for that Dragon gem, for Fang.

"Didn't mean to bring it down, so where were we? We got single parents who are terrible at making jokes, or both warrior women who despise formal wear," Namaari said, she liked referring Raya and herself as women, because technically, they are going to be women, not girls anymore. And in Namaari's eyes, she saw Raya as a grown woman already, humorous, smart, and kind, all the aspects she liked in her soulmate. Namaari was not looking for a soulmate, and she didn't want one in the first place.

"And we're both Sisu super fans," Raya reminded, laughing. Namaari laughed and swept her interestingly cut hair to tuck it behind her ear. It was always what she did when she hears the word 'Sisu', but this time is different, Namaari felt like doing that because she liked Raya so much, to the point that she didn't even know what she is doing, so she did that hair-tuck thing without even knowing, like it was a habit.

Not wanting to hide secrets from Raya about they love for Sisu, Namaari felt the urge to do what friends do with each other, share their secrets, Namaari lowered her voice, raising her eyebrows, "You know, Fang lengend says, she's still here." "Sisu? You're kidding, right?," Raya said excitedly.

Namaari swiftly took out her evidence, a scroll she sneaked from the temple in her home, "Wanna see something?"