Bittersweet

Edea

An eighteen year old girl sat in a crowded coffee shop, a small round table in front of her, along with an empty seat. The café reeked with the smell of burnt coffee beans, she tried her best to ignore it. Her fingers quickly ran through her moderate length blonde hair, and left just as quickly as they came. She sighed and recalled an event that passed only a few hours ago. An argument with her strong willed father, Braev Lee. It seemed the two, father and daughter, had come to struggle with each other very often, daily even. Wishing to be rid of the thought, her crystal blue eyes began to wander about the room, studying each person present in the café , there just to grab a morning coffee.

The place where the young woman sat remained one of two tables in the entire café where empty seats sat. Outside there was an extreme cold, a thin layer of frost covered the windows, and no snow drifted from the heavens. The weather was much too extreme for such fragile entities like snowflakes to exist.

Carefully, the blonde girl broke off a piece of the coffee cake that sat on the plate in front of her. She felt a weird tingling on the back of her neck, like someone had taken attention to her. Her head rose to search the room for who it might've been, but to no avail. Shrugging it off, she returned to eating the sweet treat she'd bought earlier. The feeling returned and this time, when the young woman looked up her gaze locked with that of a man with bleached blonde hair and silvery grey eyes. The man stood in line for coffee, and wore a collared black button up along with dark jeans. His hair was cut and shaved in the most strange manner, but anyone could tell he spent at least an hour in the morning perfecting it.

The stranger finally averted his gaze when the cashier girl seemed to call his order, he quickly rushed over to the counter and disappeared in the crowd. The girl, a little bewildered by the strange man, began eating her coffee cake again. Her mind strayed back to the argument she played out with her father earlier.

"Young lady! You are not to skip out on your fencing lessons to hang out with that..." The girl's Father's voice boomed at the beginning of the sentence, but had begun to falter at the end. The eighteen year old avoided her father's stern gaze with her arms crossed on her chest. She waited for her father to spit out a hurtful word about her group of friends, almost tempting him to insult them so she'd have a reason to yell back at him. "Riif-raff!" He spat, the girl's blue eyes blazed with anger as she locked her gaze with his, fists clenched around her arms. Her lips parted to retort her father's previous statement when he interrupted her. "Edea Lee, don't you even dare think of defending them, this is the third time I've needed to bail you out of local jail. This is bad for my reputation." The words rang throughout the room, Edea becoming more and more furious with each one to depart his lips. As if he couldn't make it any worse, he spoke again, "Why can't you be more like Alternis, loyal, respectful--"

Before her father could finish, Edea stormed out of the house in a seething rage, slamming the door behind her with a satisfying thud. Edea stomped away from the mansion also known as her home, not even looking back, or caring where her feet were taking her. The path she walked seemed almost automatic, she had chosen it each time she and her parent quarreled because it led to the one place where it was always too crowded for anyone to notice her.

The blonde was enraged by her father's words, Alternis, all he seemed to care about was... Alternis! He came from a broken home, his father left his mother, and his mother had... Problems. The kid was dumped on the street practically, and the person who owned the gym where Edea fenced the took Alternis under his wing, teaching him the way of the sword. Of course, Alternis was a natural, and it wasn't before long that Edea's father, Braev, noticed him.

After each class, while Edea was changing into her casual clothing, Alternis and her father spoke. They held conversations about various different things, including her father's beliefs and world events. Edea had never been included, and by the time she'd finished changing, Alternis was already gone and her father just sat in the lobby, waiting for his daughter.

Edea had never seen Alternis outside of his fencing mask, the only interaction the two had was when they were holding a bout against each other. Over the years, Alternis had grown more and more attached to Braev, sometimes he'd even ask Edea during a bout if he could come over to her home. She'd shot him down each time. Most would find this cold, and when questioned why she'd ignore Alternis' obvious advances, she'd snap because of how quick she was to anger.

But, Edea Lee acted with her own reason.

At home lay her bedridden mother, Mahzer Lee, sickly since childhood, her beautiful yet fragile mother rarely could sum up the strength to get up and tend to the household. Sometimes, it seemed like Mahzer was the only one with any faith left in Edea anymore. And the eighteen year old would never let Alternis take that away from her.

Edea bore no real grudge against the man, but it was more than infuriating when her father tried to compare him to her. Did he not realize the only reason Alternis had so easily adopted his ideals was because he followed none before? And because the abandoned boy knew no others? These thoughts were what consumed the blonde's mind, and caused her to question everything she'd ever been taught.

"Ahem," the sound of a man clearing his throat pulled Edea from her thoughts. She looked up wearily to set her gaze upon the man she'd caught staring at her earlier. Her icy blue eyes stared unblinkingly at the man, trying to assess the situation. His silvery grey ones stared right back, like he was consumed in some kind of amazement. Edea furrowed her brow and the stranger snapped out of his shocked state. After clearing his throat once more he finally stated his purpose,

"You wouldn't mind if I sat here, would you? There's a real chill outside, but I think your warm smile can help brighten the sky." The man smirked as he tried to charm Edea, she pursed her lips in utter repulsement. At first, she wanted to condemn this obvious philanderer to the extreme cold of the outside, and save her seat for somebody probably less annoying. But, after more consideration, she nodded reluctantly. The man smiled and set his belongings upon the small round table they sat at, which consisted of a medium coffee that smelled black as pitch, and a peculiar black journal with a large "D" encrusted onto its cover in silver. She must've been staring at it for a long time because the stranger suddenly spoke to her about it.

"Taken a liking to that, have you?" He said, pulling Edea's attention from the book and back to the man. She stared and nodded smally. "It's my journal, I would prefer you not open it though, there is... Sensitive information contained inside." He said the word sensitive as if to tempt Edea into reading it, but she was not allured.

"I don't believe I caught your name, they call me Ringabel, strange name, is it not?" He introduced, flashing a sideways smile. Edea was taken aback by his question, she was used to everyone knowing her name already, but she remembered that now she was in a crowded place with busy persons, people who were oblivious to her- to her existence. The opportunity presented itself for Edea to change her identity, to become someone new. 

A few awkward moments passed before the girl finally responded.

"Layla," she lied, the word feeling awkward on her lips.

"My name is Layla." Edea repeated, trying to get used to the new name.

Ringabel seemed a little taken aback by her response, like he was expecting something much different, but soon enough returned to his normal philanderer charm.

"A name as beautiful as you are, my flower." He seemed a little hesitant to say the sentence, but nonetheless, finished it and extended his hand to touch hers. Edea quickly retaliated and Ringabel's hand retreated.

She was liking the new her.