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Fero wasn’t too sure about this boat party in all honesty. Hella had brought him and his roommate slash best friend Lem along, promising it would just be a fun night. He’d thrown on some clean jeans and a t-shirt and called it a day. She was wearing this red skin tight dress and leather jacket combo which Fero couldn’t pull his eyes away for more than a minute, the muscles of her arms revealed by her sleeveless dress as soon as they got inside. That he didn’t mind so much, but the only other person he knew here was Lem, who had wandered off as soon as they arrived. Lem was the kind of person who seemed like a perfectly normal guy at first, actually a pretty boring one even. But Lem seemed to always attract the weirdest people. He had been the one who first introduced Fero and Hella after he’d met Hella in a class on historic sword making techniques. Lem was interested in it from an archeological perspective. Hella on the other hand was a skilled fighter looking to craft her own blade. They’d been assigned as partners for a project and she’d come over to work in their apartment. Hella and Fero had hit it off immediately. Hella had a wicked sense of humor and a practiced deadpan that too many people assumed was stupidity. Hella was also extremely hot, a fact Fero wasn’t the only one to notice. In fact, just across the dance floor stood her on again off again ex, Ginny. She saw them and made a beeline towards Hella which Fero took as his cue to get the hell away from there.
“Boat party!” a loud voice yelled from another room.
“Boat party! Fero yelled back, heading towards it.
“That’s the spirit!” the voice walked out of the kitchen. It belonged to a hot guy with shoulder length hair in careful dreadlocks, “Here, have a drink, man.”
He passed over the bottle of rum he was holding.
“Sure,” Fero downed a gulp.
“Hey, I’m Calhoun,” the guy reached out his hand.
“I’m Fero,” he shook it, Calhoun’s hand was warm and slightly calloused. His grip was firm.
“I don’t think I recognize you.”
“No I think I’d remember you,” Fero eyed Calhoun.
“So how’d you end up at my party?”
“Oh this is your party! Nice one, dude, really great vibe here. I’m a friend of Hella’s so she brought me along. She said it would be fine!”
“Yeah, yeah it’s cool. I love to meet new people,” Calhoun grinned.
Fero laughed.
“What?”
“I mean, I’d disagree. Meeting people kind of sucks. A lot of people kind of suck.”
“Wow. You’re blunt, aren’t you?”
Fero shrugged, “Guess so. I don’t see why people have such issues with it.”
“I couldn’t imagine,” Calhoun laughed softly, “Any other blunt observations you have for me this evening?”
“More a question.”
“Shoot.”
“Why do you have a boat?”
“Oh, that’s kind of a long story”
“I have time,” Fero crossed his arms in annoyance.
“It was mostly a dare. You know it was like, everyone was growing up and getting cars to, like impress their crushes or whatever. And I just thought it was kind of overrated. So my one friend, Brandish, he says to me, then do better. So I bought a boat. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself. Not quite as good for getting around the city,” he laughed and Fero joined him. Maybe Calhoun was a pretty alright guy. Though nothing in that story really explained where he got the money for a boat.
That was when Hella walked up.
“Calhoun!” she wrapped her arms around him in a quick hug, “I see you’ve met Fero.”
Hella gave Fero a brief kiss on the top of his head, he tried not to make anything of it, she was probably drunk. He was also trying not to pay too much attention to how close his face was to her breasts between her natural height and her heels and the way she stood so close.
“I should,” Fero took a deep breath, “I should go find Lem, make sure he hasn’t gotten himself into too much trouble.”
“Alright,” Hella seemed to pout, but that was ridiculous, Hella would never pout, “Don’t take too long.”
She kissed him on the forehead again and Fero decided it was past time to put himself somewhere else. He walked through the party for a bit, waving to Throndir, a veterinary student from his sustainable biodiversity class. Eventually he found Lem in the kitchen along with someone he’d never seen before. Lem stood very close to the new guy. Fero felt a weird pang in his chest.
“You want to introduce me to your new friend?” Fero called from the doorway.
Lem spun around, nearly dropping the drink he held.
“Careful there,” the stranger warned.
“My- Oh Emmanuel? He’s been making drinks,” now that Fero was listening Lem did sound more drunk than his usual single beer made him, “Would you like one?”
“Your drinks any good?” Fero turned to Emmanuel.
“I like to think so,” he smiled.
“Maybe another time,” Fero grinned back, “Someone needs to keep an eye on this drunk.”
He wrapped an arm around Lem’s back, “Come on. Hella’s waiting for us.”
“Hella?” Lem murmured, “Wouldn’t want to keep her waiting. She’s got a sword, did you know?”
Fero cackled, “Sure did. You only talk about it constantly. ‘Oh Fero, the blade is real Ordennan steel. It’s so rare and cool and beautiful! The perfect blade for her.’”
“I don’t sound like that!”
“You kind of do.”
“Do not!”
“Do too!”
Their argument was interrupted when they got back into the main room and saw Hella standing there, sword out.
“Hey, uh, Hella?” Fero called out nervously, “Is everything alright.”
“It will be,” she called back, eyes never leaving Calhoun, who stood frozen at the edge of her sword.
“I met your dad,” she told Calhoun.
“You-“ he seemed confused at first, and then his face fell, “Hella, I swear, I’m nothing like him.”
“How can I trust you, Calhoun, or should I say Angelo?” her voice shook.
“I- Calhoun. My name is Calhoun.”
“You’ve lied to me about everything! You’ve lied to everyone!”
“Hella, I swear, I never meant to deceive you. I was just trying to leave that life, and everything got so out of hand. Please, Hella, you have to believe me.”
“I don’t have to do anything.”
Fero walked up to her slowly, making sure to stay in her sights as he dead, “Hella, I really don’t think this is going to need a sword.”
“Fero?” she seemed to finally notice him, as though snapping out of a trance.
“Hella, hey,” he walked closer, bringing a hand on top of her sword arm. She lowered her hand along with his.
“He’s a Triste,” Hella said.
“Oh wow, fuck the Tristes,” Fero said. Calhoun didn’t even look particularly offended. Just kind of sad.
“Exactly! Fuck the Tristes!” and with that Hella punched Calhoun with all the strength of a girl who had been learning various fighting styles since she was six. Calhoun dropped to the deck with a soft thud.
“Okay, now we get the hell out of here!” Fero yelled over to her.
“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,” Brandish said, stepping out from where he’d been standing in the crowd of spectators.
“Okay you know, what. Fuck you,” and Fero punched Brandish squarely on the jaw. He reeled, not having expected the hit. Out of the corner of his eye Fero saw Hella do the same to Ginny. Then Brandish punched back and Fero remembered why he didn’t usually pick fights. It hurt like hell, and he felt his nose start to bleed. He wouldn’t last very long in a fight against Brandish, in all honesty. He looked over to Hella, she was looking worriedly at him but Ginny had her stuck, she couldn’t make her way over to them.
Brandish gave him a wide smirk, “Not so brave now.”
“I’m not afraid of you!” Fero tried to punch him again, but Brandish dodged.
“Maybe you should be,” Brandish pulled out a knife.
“Dude! What the fuck! I’m unarmed,” Fero raised his hand to demonstrate. He noticed Lem move quickly behind Brandish as he was distracted, holding a violin of all things.
“Is this really the time?” he yelled at Lem.
Lem nodded vigorously, mouthing, Trust me.
“Always the time to win a fight,” Brandish laughed cruelly, raising the knife.
And that was when Lem strummed the violin, making the most god awful noise Fero had ever heard directly into the microphone. It seemed to echo through the room unendingly. People were yelling, covering their ears. In the chaos Fero grabbed Hella’s hand and they ran towards the door, Lem followed quickly behind, dropping the violin in his haste.
They made it out to the dock and the chill of the early spring evening. They paused, panting for breath. Fero felt a hysterical giggle escape him.
“Are you alright?” Lem asked.
“Yeah, yeah. Never been better. Just got in my first party fight. No biggie. No sweat. It’s totally fine.”
“You guys didn’t have to get into a fight for me,” Hella frowned, “I can take care of myself.”
“Hella, we’re with you no matter what. Ride or die. And even you need back up if you’re trying to fight against three people at once,” Fero chuckled, blood still dripping slowly from his nose.
she gave him a long look and then leaned down until her face was right in front of his. She paused for a second and Fero felt his heart begin to race. Then she kissed him. Fero kissed back, surprised but enthusiastic. When they parted Fero stood for a moment, dazed, and stared at her. Hella gave him a quick grin before pulling Lem towards her and kissing him equally senseless.
“Wh-What,” Lem sputtered as soon as she released him.
“Can’t you just enjoy a good kiss?” Fero cackled, “Gotta question everything.”
Fero reached up to kiss Hella again, her lips were warm and rough against his and he felt a tingling through every inch of him. Then he turned to Lem and kissed him too. Lem’s lips were soft and so gentle, as curious as every other part of him.
“About time,” Hella grinned, “You know, when we first met I thought you were already dating.”
“What?” Fero gaped.
“Yeah. Lem would talk about you like all the time and you lived together and you guys had such a rhythm. Like some old married couple.”
“Wow, I can’t believe-“ Fero began,
Then they heard a yell and turned to see Brandish and Ginny storming off the boat.
“Okay, time to run, we can do more kissing when we get back to our apartment,” Fero said, grabbing Hella’s hand on the one side and Lem’s on the other. They ran down the dock and despite the potential danger to life and limb Fero thought he had probably never been happier in his life.