Nowhere With You

Embers

Sparks flew in the air of the Halifax YMCA's ping pong room late that afternoon. Kaela Kovalskia, who was chewing gum while playing Minecraft on her smartphone, held up a scoreboard with one hand: a two-two tie between Bread Dog Insurance Limited and North Elysium Insurance, it read.

Baelz Hakos, with ping pong paddle in hand, squared off against Axel Syrios. Blue, Australian eyes glared into Australian blue. All the while, the employees of the two insurance companies cheered for their team. Bae dribbled the ping pong ball on the table and watched her opponent arch his back.

TOK-TOK-TOK!

Across the table, Axel smirked. Bae grinned. She caught the ball and served.

PAK!

Axel struck the ball back and Bae answered in a heartbeat. A furious back-and-forth rally ensued. The Insurance salespeople gathered around the ping pong table cheered. Among them was Irys the Nephilim who watched the battlefield with her two-colored eyes. In particular, her eyes were fixed on the rat-girl as she dueled the red-haired dingo.

'She still has the moves.' Irys thought, watching Bae closely: from the way Bae's eyes followed the ball to the split-second pivot of her feet to the twitching of her tail before she strikes the ball, 'Here it comes!'

PAK!

Right on cue, Bae hopped back and smashed the ball with her paddle. The ball shot through to the very edge of Axel's side of the table, but the smirk never left Axel's lips. He flipped his own paddle and gently tapped the ball lightly.

POK!

The ball sailed back just over the net. Bae's jaw dropped.

TOK-TOK

The ball bounced twice. Then, Kaela turned away from her phone for a second to update the scoreboard. North Elysium won the match - and the day.

"YEAAAAHH!!" Axel roared, pumping his fist and his paddle up into the air.

The rest of North Elysium Insurance boys joined him, charging towards him at full sprint. Fist bumps were given. Bare chests clashed mid-air. If they were on the beach wearing aviator shades, Irys could have sworn they were recreating that volleyball scene from Top Gun. Either way, the boys were over the moon.

Irys saw Sana and the rest of Bread Dog wearing somber frowns on their lips. She watched their fists clenched in anticipation come loose and she heard sighs bellowed. However, this did not last long. Sana's expression brightened and she started marching towards Altare Regis, her counterpart CEO with her hand extended towards him.

However, someone beat her to the punch and crossed the aisle first.

Baelz Hakos.

The defeated rat-girl sauntered past the ping-pong table and held her head high. She walked past the cheering boys towards Axel and faced him. Axel mellowed out from euphoria and faced her too. Then, the two Australians smiled and shook hands.

"Hell of a match, ya dingo." Bae cheered.

"Damn straight, it went down the wire, ya rat." Axel answered.

"Heh, you might have won this time, mate, but I'll get back at ya." Bae warned.

"Oh, I'm quaking in my boots, chief." Axel teased.

The two Australians laughed. Whatever else they said next was drowned out by the staff of Bread Dog and North Elysium coming together to shake hands too and chat. Then, when Sana joined the mix, their Australian accents got so thick that Irys got worried that her horns might not be able to cut through!