Merciful Shadow

sovereignty

"That's such a cool name!!" Astra practically glowed with admiration, looking up at zenith every so often.

"heh, you think? thanks."

"oh and what pronouns do you use?"

"he/zhe" he replied with another smile.

Astra noticed that, whenever she looked up, zenith never failed to meet aer eye. It wasn't a particularly bad or outstanding action, though it did make astra slightly uncomfortable as they had never particularly liked eye contact.

"Mind if I come with you, to the shop?"

"No that's okay! I'd like to have a person to talk to." 

"That's great. So what exactly are you planning on buying?"

"Oh just a few things for cooking, yknow onions and other stuff."

They reached the shop after a few minutes of talking and Astra realised that she'd forgotten to bring aer money. They turned around and began walking home with a sigh.

"Astra? where you going?" zenith called out, his voice filled with dissapointment.

"Home, yknow to get money. I just said about it?"

Zenith jogged a few steps to reach astra, then slowed to match her pace.

"You don't need money though, we could just take the stuff you need." Astra's eyes widened at the mention of stealing anything.

"We can't do that! That's illegal! Delta would be so upset with me. and we have money at home anyway it isn't even like we need to-"

"Oh come on, Astra. It isn't that big of a deal, loads of people steal. And you wouldn't get in any real trouble, it'd be me who'd get in trouble; I'm older than you, and that's if we get caught, which I won't let happen." Zenith spoke reassuringly, watching Astra's facial expressions carefully.

"mhm, I'm not sure...Delta wouldn't like it."

"Forget Delta, you're your own person, yeah?"

"Mhm. Okay, I'll do it."

"Alright, just follow me and listen carefully to what I say."

Astra stumbled along behind zenith, walking closely behind him. Ae stared at the floor, trying to ignore the pounding in their chest and the shaking of her hands. Everything became much louder to astra, the beeping, the talking, the footsteps.

"Hey, are you alright?" Zenith looked back, noticing Astra's pale face. She mumbled and shakily grabbed zenith's arm, partially for comfort and partially for stability; her legs were shaking an unsettling amount and Astra worried ae'd fall over.

The two walked over to a shelf that had radishes, lettuce and other miscellaneous items related to cooking. Astra felt as though she was about to faint, they tightened aer grip on zeniths arm in order to communicate this.

"Hey, it's alright," Zhe spoke in a low, comforting whisper. "I promise you'll be alright," He smiled cunningly for a few seconds before continuing. "watch this." Zenith knocked one of the items of the shelf, forcing astra to let go of zhis arm as he knelt down to pick it up. He slipped it swiftly up the sleeve of his shirt and stood up again.

"Oops," He laughed, a fake improvised laugh but a laugh nonetheless. "Ah I suppose they didn't have what you needed astra, sorry about that. Alright, let's get going. We can look somewhere else."

Astra took a hold of his arm again and they both walked back outside. Astra was fighting the urge to nervously look behind her to see if they were being pursued at all but, as zenith had promised, they hadn't been suspected. Zenith led astra to a mostly secluded area where the two were able to sit down and recollect. 

"See? I told you it'd be alright." He spoke softly, but his words had a very apparent edge to them. Astra was still trying to steady herself, both her physical self and her mind. Aer vision had gone blurry and they still felt nervous about being caught. She realised that the amount of food they had taken was inadequate for what ae needed, but avoided pointing this out as she didn't want to repeat the ordeal that had taken place.

"uhm, thank you," Astra mumbled nervously and Zenith replied with a smile. "I really should be going now, Delta will be wondering where I am...What if they realise that I didn't have money with me? Then they'll know what I did and they'll hate me and-"

"You talk about Delta a lot, huh?," Zhe said jokingly before realising that Astra was too nervous to joke. "There's no way Delta could know. They aren't all seeing, yeah? It'll be alright, just make sure not to say anything to them and they won't find out."

Astra threw her arms around Zenith, alarming him slightly before zhe eventually relaxed and returned the affectionate gesture, before walking off in the direction of the apartment with a wave.

She was unusually quiet, this caught my attention within the first ten minutes of aer arrival; Instead of greeting me lengthily, they simply gave a timid smile and waved. And instead of striking up an unimportant and uninformative conversation, she hurriedly rushed to the kitchen to put the shopping away, though there didn't seem to be much. I thought nothing of it and left Astra to her own devices. If she needed to tell me something then I trusted aer to do it in their own time.

I was abruptly reminded by a notification on my laptop that my informant was once again supposed to be dropping off some more information around 10pm tonight. It was unpleasantly frequent but a steady flow of communication was required for work such as mine.

A few hours went by and Astra was still avoiding conversation, I took the opportunity to get some work done: filing some more data on children at the foster home. Around 9pm I suggested that Astra go to sleep, a suggestion that she obliged without question, I waited patiently for another 45 minutes until I was sure that she'd gone to sleep, and went outside to speak to my informant. He was already there when I arrived, sitting calmy on the grass with a cigarette in one hand.

"Delta," He began coyly. "I thought you'd never show up."

"I'm early." I said through gritted teeth.

"Ah, no need for such formality, lighten up for once, yeah?"

"How about," I paused, trying to choose my words carefully. "You give me the information you were supposed to, and we part briefly afterward."

"Hm? Ah, information," He reached into his pocket with zhis free hand and pulled out a piece of paper, before handing it to me with a provocative smile. "Here you are, mighty Delta." He bowed extravagantly.

"Stop messing about I have to get back soon," I hissed. "and improve your handwriting."

"There's nothing wrong with my handwriting, I'll have you know."

"It's illegible."

"Don't go using fancy words now." He waved zhis hand dismissively.

I turned to walk back in the direction of the apartment with an irritated sigh.

"Oh, Delta," I turned around to face him. "That friend of yours, Astra. Don't let her get in the way. She'll weaken you if you aren't careful."

"How do you know about aer? And what do you mean by 'weaken'?"

Zhe smiled and turned away, ignoring my questions. I saw no point in persisting so I did the same.

The writing on the paper was as it always was; messily scribbled, barely legible. It didn't have a name on it this time, simply and address and a brief description of the person's state. I decided I'd go to sleep and review the paper later.

I cautiously opened the door to the room where Astra was sleeping. It was a very small room, barely sufficient, but Astra had insisted that it was perfect. The sound of her gentle snoring filled the room, she lay on aer side and their hair sprawled over her face. I lingered at the door for a few moments, listening to their breathing patterns before shutting the door, with the same care as previously, and heading to the room across, my room.