Soren forced his posture to stay loose as he approached.
"Hello… Louise."
Since their last meeting, he had avoided her.
Not blatantly or in any way rude enough to attract attention, but enough.
Enough to keep distance.
Enough to make sure they never had too much time alone.
Louise was kind to him, warm, even.
She cared, but that made it worse, not better.
Because Louise had known the original Soren.
Because all it would take was one stray memory, one casual mention of something he should remember and didn't, one look held for too long, and the whole fragile lie of his place here could crack.
Even when she did nothing wrong, even when she was only smiling at him with that effortless familial affection, he could not help the tension that crept into him.
There was guilt there too, old and ugly and difficult to look at directly.
Not his life.
Not his body.
Not his family.
And yet here he was, being treated like he belonged in all of them.
"I told you to call me Sis," Louise said, smiling in mock disappointment. "Did you forget already?"
Soren hesitated just a beat too long before forcing a small, apologetic expression onto his face.
"Right. Sorry… Sis."
"Much better. Anyway, what are you doing here?"
He gave a faint nod, then looked pointedly at the menu board even though he already knew what Olivia wanted.
"I'm just ordering drinks."
"Oh?" Louise followed his glance towards the tables. "You're not alone?"
"I'm meeting a friend."
"A friend," she repeated, amused. "That sounds terribly suspicious."
Soren didn't rise to it.
"She wanted advice."
Louise's eyes lit up at once.
"What kind of advice?"
He regretted answering almost immediately.
"By the looks of it, the kind you're thinking of."
"Oh, that kind." She leaned in a fraction, delighted. "And you came to a café for this? With a girl? Little Brother, you're making awfully efficient use of your first semester."
Soren had to stop himself from grimacing.
He disliked when she called him that in public less because it embarrassed him and more because it pulled at the wrong places inside him, too close to something he had no right to claim.
Even now, with her tone light and teasing, some part of him remained wary, waiting for the conversation to turn sharp in a way it never actually did.
"She's just a friend," he said.
Louise hummed, clearly unconvinced, then peered past him again.
"She looks cute. May I come over?"
Soren instinctively glanced back at Olivia.
She had been overjoyed the first time he sat and listened to her ramble about Alex.
Considering how isolated she usually seemed, there was a decent chance Louise's friendliness would make her day rather than overwhelm her.
Still, the thought of bringing Louise over left a faint knot of tension in his chest that had nothing to do with Olivia's comfort and everything to do with his own.
He kept his face neutral.
"Ask her first," he said. "I'm getting the drinks."
"Oh, get me a caramel latte too."
"Buying your own was apparently impossible?"
"I saw an opportunity."
"Wow, you're so kind."
Louise smiled like that was a compliment.
Soren placed the order, took an extra moment longer than he needed to while the drinks were being prepared, then glanced back towards the table.
As expected, Louise had not waited.
She was already sitting with Olivia, smiling brightly while Olivia, pink-cheeked and clearly flustered, nodded along with both hands wrapped around her empty cup as if trying to look composed and failing in a way that was almost impressive.
Soren exhaled slowly through his nose.
'Of course they get along.'
Still, when the drinks were finally ready and he carried them back, the sight waiting for him made his shoulders ease despite himself.
Olivia didn't look uncomfortable.
If anything, she looked thrilled.
That, at least, made things simpler.
He set the mugs down carefully, placing Olivia's hot chocolate in front of her first, then Louise's latte, then taking his own seat.
"I'm back. Any problems?"
"None," Louise said. "Unless you count me being deeply wounded that you never told me you'd already made such a sweet little friend."
Olivia looked at him immediately, bright-eyed and earnest.
"Miss Louise is really nice."
"That was fast," Soren muttered.
Louise rested her cheek against one hand and smiled at him over the rim of her cup.
"Well? Aren't you going to introduce us properly?"
Soren looked at Olivia first.
"This is Louise Cruentus. She's… family."
He still couldn't bring himself to say more than that without something in him tightening.
Olivia nodded quickly.
"I'm Olivia. It's nice to meet you."
Soren took a careful sip of his own drink, watching the exchange over the rim of the mug.
Olivia was shy, but not uncomfortable.
Louise was in one of her easy, charming moods, the kind that made people lower their guard almost on instinct.
He should have relaxed, but he couldn't.
Even sitting here, even with the conversation harmless and light, he stayed aware of Louise in a way he simply was not with Olivia.
A little too careful with his wording.
A little too conscious of every answer.
It was not fear exactly, but it was close enough to taste.
Louise turned back to him.
"So, are you finally going to tell me about these mysterious academy friends of yours, or must I interrogate our Olivia instead?"
Soren lowered his cup.
And before the conversation could move any further, he found himself already bracing.
Louise didn't wait for him to answer.
"I'll start with an easy question," she said, stirring her latte with unnecessary elegance. "Have you made any male friends at all, or have you somehow wandered into a life made entirely of bad decisions?"
Soren let out a quiet breath through his nose.
"There's Felix."
Louise's expression changed at once, not dramatically, but enough.
The softness remained, the amusement remained, but there was a faint tightening around her eyes now, the sort that always appeared when she was preparing to dislike someone on principle.
"That was immediate," Soren said.
"You said his name like I should already be wary."
"That's because you should."
Olivia blinked between them.
"Who's Felix?"
Soren leaned back slightly in his chair, one hand still around his mug.
"He's… weird," he said, deciding that was the safest possible start. "He's an asshole and a complete playboy, but he was the first person to reach out to me, so I'm stuck with him."
Louise stared at him.
"That is not a reassuring description."
"I know."
And it wasn't.
Felix was the sort of person who seemed built to make a terrible first impression and then stubbornly refuse to become simpler after that.
Soren explained how they had met near the start of the semester, how his first reaction had been overwhelmingly negative, how that opinion had not entirely improved, and yet, despite everything, Felix had still helped him more than once.
He did not dress it up.
He did not pretend Felix was secretly nice.
That would have been more suspicious than honesty.
Louise listened with her cup near her lips, expression flat enough that Soren could already tell what she thought long before she said it.
"So," she said at last, "he's insufferable."
"That's one way of phrasing it."
"And you still kept him."
Soren snorted softly.
"What do you mean, kept him?"
"You know," Louise said, gesturing vaguely. "Like a stray cat with an attitude problem."
"That comparison feels insulting to cats."
Olivia covered a smile with her sleeve.
Louise clicked her tongue.
"I don't like him."
"You haven't met him."
"I don't need to."
"That's not how this is meant to work."
"Too late."
Soren shook his head, but a faint smile still tugged at his mouth.
This, at least, was easy enough to handle.
Louise being protective was familiar in a way he could respond to without thinking too hard about why it unsettled him as much as it did.
Then Louise tilted her head.
"And the others?"
Soren already knew where this was going, so there was no point pretending otherwise.
"There's Amelia."
Olivia visibly shivered.
Louise caught it instantly.
"Oh?" she said, glancing at Olivia. "That reaction was quick."
Olivia shrank a little in her seat.
"She's scary."
"That's fair."
He explained the midterm practical, how he had managed to land a hit on Amelia, how she had stared at him afterwards as if trying to reconcile two incompatible facts, and how, out of absolutely nowhere, she had asked if they could be friends.
Louise listened more carefully this time.
"And since then?" she asked.
"She's been following me around."
Olivia nodded with the solemnity of someone confirming a terrible rumour.
"She really has."
Louise slowly lowered her cup.
The concern in her expression was subtle, but Soren still caught it.
Everyone knew the stories about Amelia.
Princess Amelia, the Wild Wolf, violent, unstable, terrifyingly strong, and just unpredictable enough that most sensible students preferred not to end up on her radar at all.
Hearing that Soren had somehow become the object of her interest, even platonically, clearly did not put Louise at ease.
"She hasn't done anything," Soren said, before she could start constructing worse possibilities. "She's just… there."
"That is not very comforting."
"I know, but that's still the truth."
Olivia nodded again.
"From what I saw, she just follows and watches."
Louise looked at her.
"Not in a bad way. Just… a lot."
"…You're really helping," Soren muttered.
Louise gave him a long look, then finally sighed and let the matter rest, at least outwardly.
"And anyone else?"
There was the briefest hesitation before Soren answered.
"…Lilly."
Something in his expression softened before he could stop it.
Louise immediately noticed the difference.
He said Lilliana's full name after that, because not doing so would have drawn even more attention to the first slip, and then he spoke about her in calmer, steadier terms.
How much she had helped him.
How consistently she had been there.
How their friendship had come together quietly rather than all at once, built out of lessons and conversations and the kind of support that never arrived loudly enough to be called a grand gesture, but mattered anyway.
He was careful.
Not because any of it was false, but because too much truth felt dangerous in its own way.
He mentioned tutoring, and mentioned that she had looked out for him, but he did not mention him giving her blood, or how he went to her dorm, or the softness of her voice when she stopped sounding like Professor Roseblood and became simply Lilly.
Louise stirred her latte once, slowly.
Then she looked up at him with a very particular expression.
"Soren… why is it almost all women?"
He blinked.
"What?"
Olivia frowned immediately.
"What's wrong with that?"
Louise placed a hand against her chest as if deeply burdened.
"As his older sister in all ways that matter, I think I'm allowed to be concerned if my little brother has somehow turned into a shameless player."
Soren nearly choked on his drink.
"I have not."
Olivia looked between them, then froze.
"Little brother?"
And just like that, Soren felt the conversation step directly onto the one patch of ground he had hoped to avoid.
Louise, of course, handled it with irritating ease.
"Oh, that part," she said lightly. "He isn't actually my little brother. He's my cousin. We've known each other forever, though, so I call him that anyway."
Then she turned to him with a sweet, expectant smile.
"And what do you call me?"
Soren stared at her.
Louise's smile widened.
He could feel Olivia waiting too now, quiet and curious, and for one absurd second he had the sharp, irrational urge to lie out of sheer self-preservation.
But that would only make it worse, and besides, Louise would absolutely enjoy dragging it out.
So he gave in.
"…Sis."
Olivia's eyes widened.
Louise looked unbearably pleased with herself.
Soren rubbed lightly at the back of his neck, trying and failing to shake off the odd discomfort that always came with moments like this.
Louise treated him kindly.
Too kindly, sometimes.
There were moments when she made the role so easy to step into that it felt almost cruel to remain standing there, accepting it, knowing he was always half a breath away from being exposed as something false.
He kept his expression even.
"Anyway, there's something I probably should have explained earlier," he said, turning back to Olivia before Louise could make it worse.
Olivia blinked.
"Hm?"
"I meant to say it before," Soren continued, and now that he had started, some genuine remorse crept in despite himself. "But Amelia interrupted us, and after that it just kept becoming more awkward to bring up."
Olivia stared at him for a second longer.
Then she went very still.
"…Bring what up?"
Soren exhaled quietly.
"I'm not a woman."
The words landed, and Olivia's expression changed not dramatically, but in stages, as if her mind had to catch up one piece at a time.
First confusion.
Then a tiny widening of her eyes.
Then a slow flush spreading over her face as recent conversations evidently rearranged themselves in her head.
"Oh," she said.
Soren winced, just slightly.
"I'm sorry," he said, more softly now. "I should've corrected it earlier. I did try once, but after that I let it sit too long. That part's on me."
Olivia looked down into her hot chocolate, then back up at him, still pink.
"So when you said you liked girls…"
"Yes."
"And when I thought…"
"Yes."
"So… I never had girls talk?"
"No…"
"And all the advice…"
"I can still give it," he said quickly, before she could spiral any further. "The advice part doesn't actually change."
Olivia made a small, helpless sound and hid half her face behind her sleeve.
Louise, entirely unhelpfully, looked delighted.
"Well, on the bright side, girls talk is still happening. I'm here."
Olivia looked at her, then at Soren again, clearly trying to recover some dignity.
"I really thought…"
She stopped herself, then let out a tiny embarrassed laugh.
"Never mind."
Soren's mouth softened at the corners.
It was still awkward, yes, but not catastrophic, and that alone was enough to make the knot in his shoulders loosen.
"I'm sorry," he said again, more gently. "I know I should've made it clear sooner."
Olivia shook her head quickly.
"No, it's alright. Really. I'm just a bit embarrassed now."
"That makes two of you," Louise said.
Soren gave her a flat look.
Olivia lowered her sleeve a little, the pink still lingering in her cheeks.
"You're still Soren, so it doesn't matter."
He blinked.
"That's a surprisingly reassuring thing to hear."
"I mean it," she said, a touch more firmly. "It's not like you turned into someone else."
If anything, that almost made him flinch.
Not visibly, he hoped, but enough that he needed the mug in his hands just to have something solid to hold onto for a second.
Louise did not react, or if she noticed anything, she was kind enough not to show it.
Olivia, mercifully, was too busy working through her own embarrassment to catch the brief stillness in him.
"So… you can still help me?" she said finally.
"Of course," Soren said. "If anything, I should be slightly more useful now. I'm a guy, Alex is a guy, that's at least one shared variable."
Olivia looked unconvinced, then thoughtful, then shy again.
"Maybe," she murmured.
Louise leaned in at once, eyes sparkling in a way that made Soren deeply suspicious.
"Well then," she said, clasping her hands. "What exactly do you need help with, Olivia?"
Olivia stiffened like she had just remembered why she came in the first place.
"O-Oh. Right."
Her fingers curled around the handle of her cup, and when she spoke again, her voice had gone small and earnest in the way it always did when the topic was Alex.
"Uhm… Alex has always been important to me… ever since we were little."
Soren listened quietly.
She told the story more fully this time.
"When I found out he wanted to come here, to Stellaris, I applied too… but I'm weak, so I tried to go for Academic Studies…"
How she had followed in his direction almost naturally, without really thinking of it as sacrifice because wanting to stay near him had always felt obvious.
"Then… when he was blessed by the Goddess, something changed in me as well…"
Louise listened intently, eyes sparkling.
"I'd never really prayed before," Olivia admitted, cheeks pink again, though for a softer reason now. "But after that, I could suddenly channel divine power so easily that it scared me a little. And when I told Alex…"
Her whole face lit up with the memory.
"He was so happy. He kept saying, 'Now we can always be together!'"
Soren blinked once.
That was… unexpectedly direct.
The Alex in his memory, the one from the game, had often felt passive to the point of irritation, pushed along by events and affection more than actively steering either.
Hearing Olivia recount moments like this made him understand her feelings better, but it also left him faintly wrong-footed, as if he kept brushing up against proof that the version of Alex in this world was not lining up neatly with the one he thought he knew.
Or perhaps it was simply easier to see Alex as more human when filtered through Olivia's love for him.
Either way, Soren kept the thought to himself.
Louise, meanwhile, looked seconds away from grabbing Olivia by the hands and demanding every detail from birth onwards.
"So," she asked, somehow restraining herself to a normal tone, "what happened this morning?"
Olivia's fingers tightened around her mug.
"Well… after I told him everything about last night, he hugged me."
Louise inhaled sharply.
Soren chose to ignore her.
"And he apologised," Olivia continued, growing steadily redder. "For not being there. He looked really upset, actually, and then he said he'd make more time for me from now on."
"That sounds promising," Soren said.
"It does," Louise added, much too quickly.
Olivia ducked her head.
"A-And then…"
Both of them leaned in a little.
Olivia's ears were pink now.
"We made plans to meet tomorrow," she mumbled.
"Where?" Louise asked at once.
"Outside the academy."
There was a beat of silence.
Then both Soren and Louise lit up at the same time.
""A date,"" they said in unison.
Olivia jolted.
"It's not a date!"
"It's a date," Louise said, with the serene confidence of someone pronouncing objective truth.
"It is absolutely a date," Soren agreed, unable to stop the grin pulling at his mouth.
Olivia looked from one to the other like she had been betrayed by both sides at once.
"No, it isn't! He just said we should spend time together, that's all!"
"Outside the academy," Louise repeated.
"Tomorrow," Soren added.
"After hugging you."
"And apologising sincerely."
"And making a point of saying he wants more time with you."
Olivia buried her face in her hands.
"You're both awful."
"We're right," Louise said.
Soren nodded.
Olivia made a distressed little sound, but there was no real force behind it now.
She was too red, too soft around the edges, too obviously happy beneath the embarrassment.
Louise's voice turned practical in an instant.
"So what do you need help with?"
Olivia lowered her hands just enough to peek through her fingers.
"I wanted… maybe…" She took a breath. "I wanted help choosing clothes."
Louise froze.
Then Soren watched the exact moment it hit her.
Her eyes shone.
Beside her, Soren felt his own face brighten in immediate, shameless understanding.
"I'll pay," Louise said, already halfway out of her seat.
Olivia blinked.
"Eh?"
"Well… it looks like you've set her off," Soren said, though he was also smiling.
"I have excellent taste, don't worry," Louise informed them.
"Wow, this seems like it might be dangerous."
"Why are you pretending you're not having fun, too?"
"I'm different. I genuinely want to help."
"Yeah, yeah."
Olivia was still staring at the two of them as if the speed of the mood shift had left her behind.
"Soren?" she asked weakly.
He stood too, this time with no trace of the careful distance that had shaped so much of his conversation with Louise.
With Olivia, warmth came much more easily, simple and unguarded in a way that didn't ask him to think so hard about every step.
He held a hand out towards her with an encouraging grin.
"Come on," he said. "If this is your first date, or apparently-not-a-date, then you may as well let us do this properly."
"It's not—" Olivia began.
"It's a date," Louise said.
Olivia turned to Soren for support and found none.
He nodded solemnly.
"It's a date."
"You two decided that by force!"
"That's how truth works," Louise replied.
"No it isn't!"
Soren laughed, softer than the sound deserved, and Olivia looked at him with a helpless, flustered expression that only made the warmth in the scene settle further.
For all the awkwardness from earlier, for all the lingering tiredness in his body and the lingering image of rose-pink eyes that still refused to leave his mind, this felt light in a way he had needed more than he realised.
Olivia huffed, but she finally took his hand and let him pull her to her feet.
"There," Louise declared. "That's settled."
"It absolutely was not settled," Olivia protested, though far too meekly for anyone to believe she meant it.
Soren picked up his coat from the back of the chair and glanced at the two of them, one flustered, one radiant with matchmaking intent.
Then, despite himself, he smiled.
"Alright," he said. "Let's go shopping."
Before Olivia could properly gather another protest, Louise had already swept around the table, and between the two of them, Olivia found herself shepherded towards the door with all the inevitability of a minor natural disaster.
"W-Wait," she said, half-laughing now despite herself. "At least let me finish my drink!"
Louise paused just long enough to snatch it up and pass it into her hands with complete seriousness.
"There. Problem solved."
Soren had to look away for a second so he would not laugh directly in Olivia's face.
Then the three of them stepped out into the cold morning together, with Olivia pink-cheeked and protesting, Louise already planning half a wardrobe aloud, and Soren, despite everything, feeling a little lighter than he had when the day began.
————「❤︎」————