When Trys woke up the next morning after Lex's party, he felt like something had crawled into his mouth and died. His headache wasn't particularly improving matters, either, but the look on his face clearly indicated to his siblings that he wasn't in the mood, as they left him alone. He started making his way towards the dining pavilion to get some breakfast, when he noticed Lex heading that direction from her cabin. Not wanting to interact with her right now, he quietly spun around and headed over to the lake. He wasn't that hungry anyway, and had a vague memory of making an excuse and ditching Lex. He knew there'd been a lot of kissing between the two of them the previous night, but knew he didn't want anything else to happen between the two of them. He wasn't sure about Lex's feelings towards him so he figured it was safer to avoid her for now, until he manned up enough to tell her he wasn't interested. Gods, that would be an awkward conversation. He brightened up as he noticed Lark by the lake, and made his way over to her. "Lark, hey!" Seeing Lark never failed to put Trys in a good mood.
Lark's siblings had left her alone when she woke up; most of them knew her well enough to know her moods, and the ones that didn't were quietly warned by the others. Tas had given her a very hurt and confused look as she'd left, which was just another thing to add to her foul mood. She'd tried to be a mentor, and completely messed that up. What sort of role model was she, anyway, if she was going to get so angry about her plans going wrong that she picked a fight? She went down to the lake instead of heading to breakfast, figuring she'd avoid Trystin. Clearly the universe had a sense of humour, because he found her annoyingly fast. She sent a curse Ares' way about his stupid-ass kids, and fixed Trystin with a glare, ignoring the way her stomach was churning. She must be hungrier than she'd thought. "Yes?"
Trys froze slightly at Lark's response, body kicking into fight-or-flight mode. He had sprawled on the floor next to her and was now feeling vulnerable, knowing how her temper could be. She gave Trys a run for his money. He frantically recalled their most recent interactions and couldn't work out when he might have pissed her off. Maybe she was upset about something else and was taking it out on him just because he was there? "Are you okay?" He asked hesitantly, looking at her with concern.
Lark ignored his question; him asking if she was okay made her angrier. "Shouldn't you be at breakfast?" she asked. She'd have thought he'd want to be with his new girlfriend. Gods, this was really making her want to start another fight, but she didn't want to fight Trystin. Well, not really. Maybe she did. She was just really mad, and she couldn't even really explain why, which just made her more angry. Plus, she was actually hungry. If only she'd gone to breakfast, then she wouldn't be having this stupid conversation.
Trys could tell she was avoiding answering his question, so she must not be okay. Gods, why were girls so hard to read?! He shrugged in answer. "Couldn't face it this morning," he said, not technically a lie - he couldn't face dealing with Lex this morning. "How about you, are you not hungry?" Trys was pretty sure he and Lark had been good the last time they spoke, so hopefully whatever had put her in this mood wasn't something he'd done.
He was hungover, Lark surmised, and wondered how much he even remembered of last night. He had looked pretty drunk. She pulled up some grass and started ripping it up. "Nope," she said. At least she was so annoyed that she wasn't that hungry any more, so it was sort of true. She still couldn't explain exactly why she was so mad. "What is wrong with you?" she burst out, and then had to scramble for something else to say because what the fuck, she was mad at him now? "What, you're just leaving Electra hanging now?" Clearly the true injustice here. Even if picturing Electra's face looking around for Trystin made her feel grimly satisfied. And also like she might punch her. Hm.
Trys was pondering what to say to cheer her up when she suddenly shouted at him. Uhhh, huh? He blinked in surprise and sat up, not knowing what the Tartarus she meant. When she mentioned Electra, he had a moment of surprise and, weirdly, guilt that Lark knew about it. "Electra? Did she say something to you?" He didn't even think Lex and Lark were that friendly. Also, he had the impression that Lex was more of a make out and move on type of girl so had assumed she wouldn't mind if they didn't "define the relationship" immediately. Still... you never knew with girls.
"What? No, she doesn't talk to the likes of me," Lark said, scoffing. She wasn't interesting or cool enough for Dionysus cabin. Not that she minded, because she was usually above all these parties, but she'd thought it would be cute, setting Tas up with Electra. Absolutely moronic, clearly. "I just thought, since you were all over each other last night, you might want to see her this morning, but you're just going to ignore her? Typical boy." Gods, now she was offended on Electra's behalf, which was like chewing rocks. This whole situation was stupid. She was going to become a tree nymph.
Gods, why was Lark so offended on the behalf of someone she didn't even seem to like much? And how would Lark even know that he hadn't talked to Lex? Trys was completely bemused. He winced a little at Lark's description of them being "all over each other". Yeesh. "I'm not ignoring her, I haven't had a chance to talk her yet. I woke up, like, 10 minutes ago." If he was going to justify this to himself even more, he'd say he didn't want to let Lex down in front of her cabin and friends, so was waiting for her to be by herself. His headache was getting worse from the confusion, and he wished he'd just gone back to sleep.
It was so infuriating that he had such sensible retorts to everything she said. She was actually going to hit him in a minute. "Well, what are you going to say when see her, then?" she asked, continuing to shred grass in an attempt to seem like she didn't care. Which she didn't. Except that she wanted Electra to be single, for Tasaria, obviously. She was giving herself a headache trying to think her way through this one.
"I haven't exactly got it scripted," Trys hedged. "Something like 'thanks for the great party, sorry but I'm not into you so I don't want anything more, hope that's okay'?" He shrugged. For some reason, he felt incredibly uncomfortable talking about this with Lark. If this was Kes, he'd have no issue with this conversation, he was sure. Maybe it was because he'd known Kes longer. And because he felt like Lark was a fuse about to blow at any second if he made a misstep. Which was fun, as he didn't know where he was meant to be stepping.
Well, good, she thought. Gods, she was dedicated to this dumbass idea. "That sounds like a good way to let her down," she said, none of the barely-contained rage in her tone that'd been there just now. She felt like skipping around the lake singing, actually. Throwing the grass down, she brushed her hands together as she stood up. "I'm going for breakfast, you coming? You can catch Electra for that chat after. She won't be up for ages though, you know that cabin." She held a hand out for Trys to get up.
Somehow, Trys had managed to get through the minefield. He breathed a small sigh of relief, instantly noticing the switch in Lark's tone. "Thanks," he said, feeling a little unsure. Had she just put on her feminist shoes today and wanted to make sure he was treating Lex right? How bizarre. At least his headache was starting to recede. "Sounds great!" He grabbed her hand and jumped up, absentmindedly thinking how nice holding her hand was.
