This is it

Chapter 5

Aloy woke to find the space beside her empty and cold. He must've left a while ago. Her heart sank. She didn't know what time it was but smelled coffee. She pushed up, rubbed her face, found her discarded clothes and got dressed. Arranging her hair to look as normal as possible, she braced herself, opened her door and stepped into the Base's common area. She was disappointed to see that Zo was alone, sipping coffee, while moving data around on the digital work sheet in front of her. Where was he?

"Hey, you!" Zo called and with a touch to her ear, ended her Focus' display and turned to Aloy. "Good morning, sunshine."

"Hey..." Aloy smiled crookedly.

"You look knackered," commented Zo.

"Late night..." Aloy answered non-committedly.

"Thanks so much for the fruit and veg!" Zo said excitedly.

"Yeah, no problem." A tired smile.

"You ok?"

"Yeah." A pause. "Great! Just tired."

Zo looked at her sideways. "Riiight..." As if she could see right through her, Zo added, "Liar."

Aloy blushed, immediately turned to pour coffee, so her friend wouldn't see her embarrassment. With her back turned she drank half the cup, before remembering she didn't even like coffee, pouring the rest down the drain, filling the kettle again to boil water for tea. Boy she was really out of it...

Though Zo hadn't inquired, she knew something was going on. She hadn't continued working, but simply sat and waited, drinking coffee.

Aloy heard someone shower and her ears pricked up at the sound. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Aloy, what's up?" Zo asked tentatively.

Aloy sighed, rubbed her forehead. "I don't know yet..." she said quietly. While she poured hot water over tea leaves, inhaling the beautiful aroma, she asked, "how did everything go yesterday?"

"You mean with Kotallo? Fine. Great, actually. Nice guy. Quiet. Bit withdrawn and barred, if you ask me. Seems to like Varl." Zo smiled.

"And Erend?"

"You know Erend, loud and a bit overwhelming when you first meet him, right?"

"Yeah..."

"They got along though, I thought."

"Good." But she needed to know something else. "Have you seen him yet?"

"Who? Erend? Yeah, he's in the shower."

Aloy made a non-committal sound.

"You meant Kotallo..." guessed Zo. "D'you want to tell me what's going on?"

Aloy thought for a moment, looked down into her cup while tracing the rim with her finger, avoiding her friends gaze, sipping tea, then dropping her head into her hands massaging her temples. She felt like she her feelings were surely written on her face, so she averted her eyes. "I'm just tired."

Zo sighed. "You know your secret's safe with me, if you need to vent." She came round to fold Aloy into a warm embrace, who gratefully took it.

"Thank you," she whispered, just as Erend came waltzing in.

"Hey, look who's returned! Aloy!" he shouted.

Despite tears threatening just a second ago, she involuntarily cheered up, smiled broadly and received Erend's crushing hug happily.

"Hi!" she said cheerfully. "Got a new roomy, ey?"

"Quiet dude..." said Erend rolling his eyes. "Snuck out this morning, without me noticing. I'm such a light sleeper, you know. Come to think of it, I totally should've heard," he said contemplating this. Then added, "Nice bloke though."

Both Zo and Aloy exchanged looks and giggled.

"What?" asked Erend.

"Nothing... nothing," laughed Aloy. "Coffee?"

"Oh, yeah..." he said longingly. "Please."

Zo added, "Kotallo was gone before Varl left for Riverhymn. Early riser I guess."

"Does he have a Focus yet?"

"No, we hadn't had time, we ate, and he went to bed right after. We didn't even have a chance to show him the facility."

"Okay..." Aloy tried to sound nonchalant.

While Erend drank his coffee and Zo returned to her work, Aloy retreated quietly to her room, remembering their comments: Snuck out this morning. Gone before Varl left. No Focus.

Rummaging aimlessly around her room, she became increasingly agitated. She wasn't sure if it was worry or simply nerves.

Pretending to sort things and preparing missions, she confidently strode out of her room, crafted some ammo at the workbench, returned to her room, then announced loudly she was going to shower now. Making sure she wasn't in anyone's field of vision she took the chance to catch a glimpse at Kotallo's extremely tidy quarters. His bed was made, his pack was sitting stowed to the side, his things neatly put away. He'd spun some string in his cubicle, which acted as a drying line for blue dressing. No Focus. She'd go and find him.