Rough Draft - Coye 4.6

Coye Made a walk of shame back to the front desk, where he found Dorothy and Tammy waiting for him. Dorothy lit up with relief while the receptionist seemed as indifferent as ever.

“There you are,” Dorothy sighed. “Stomach problems?”

“Oh, no… It was just a long walk… You know how it is…”

“Right,” The guild mistress nodded and looked slightly away.

“What he means to say is that Britni and her friends got a hold of him.” Tammy informed.

‘Nothing escapes her, does it? Tammy must be down on all the guild’s drama…’

“How did you even know that?” Coye asked.

“It’s not my fault you didn’t get bullied somewhere private. I happen to be on my break lounging in the records room, And all of you just so happen to be viewable from the window…”

“And you didn’t help him?” Dorothy frowned.

“I don’t get paid enough to to deal with things that amuse me if I were to leave them as is.”

Dorothy sat down the clipboard she was checking over. “They just made it back, too. I was hoping they would at least give you a day or so before harassing you…” realization creeped over her as she noticed the lack of a certain someone. Given how he seemed like he was in a good mood she doubted anything had happened to his companion, but it was still her duty to check. “Where is Byng?”

“We stopped by Suzette‘s house on our way back and she stayed behind. Don’t worry.”

“Oh, thank goodness. I thought something might’ve happened to her for a moment…”

‘Technically it’s not too late for that. Who knows what could go wrong when you’re all alone with Suzette…’ Shayla implied while Coye ignored the suggestion.

“Those girls just went up to their dorm room, so… If you need me to, I can go and give them a talking to… I’m not sure how much good it will do, but… I can’t stand the way they treat you, Coye. On top of that, they just don’t listen to me!”

“How dare they.” Tammy replied with bitter sarcasm. Coye gave her a judgmental expression that prompted her to look away rather than start conflict.

“I’m fine, thank you. It wasn’t that bad. I think they softened up a bit, it was kind of great actually…” he mumbled thoughtlessly.

Dorothy blinked. “Great?”

“Must’ve misspoke,” he coughed into his fist and hid his blushing face. “I meant it was alright. You don’t need to go and bother them over this.”

To distract Dorothy, he took out his trophy bag and showed the guild mistress the severed claw. “We took care of things. Didn’t quite go our way, but… we got the main job done.” Coye then gave her a brief recount of the adventure he undertook earlier that day, Tammy listening intently on the sidelines as she fiddled with that strange buttoned cube of hers.

“I see… That’s too bad, but these things happen and miss Suzette knew the risks.” Dorothy frowned, only to reignite with passion as she took the claw from him. “The important thing is you made it home safe and sound.”

“Home, huh?” Coye thought aloud. He felt a sentimental pang when he remembered this was his last night sleeping here.

The other girls in the room caught wind of his strange inflection, prompting Tammy to ask, “something on your mind, killer?”

‘Time to rip the bandage off, baby. Go ahead and tell them.’ Shayla figured that this might be difficult so she patted him on the head to reassure him. She was correct, and it took him a few seconds to properly express himself.

“Actually, yeah… I had something I needed to tell you, Dorothy.”

“Oh,” Dorothy said, looking around and blushing for some inexplicable reason. “And what might that be?”

“Tomorrow, I’m going to be moving out of the guild. I just wanted to give you a heads up before I takeoff.”

There was a delay in Dorothy‘s reaction. She wondered if she misheard him. She froze in plates after tilting her head, her glasses falling down her nose by an inch or two. “Coye, could you repeat that? I’m not sure if I heard you correctly… It almost sounded like you said-“

“He’ll be moving in with one of his fuck buddies by the sound of it.” Tammy said for him.

Coye frowned and corrected her before the receptionist went and got any funny ideas. “No, it’s not like that… I’ve been thinking about getting my own place for the last couple of weeks, actually and I just so happen to bring it up to Suzette, Who mentioned she had a little cabin outside the gate just over that way,” he gestured with his fingers to show the general direction, or at least to where he assumed it was. “This ended up being that extra reward she asked you about. Remember?”

“Oh. Yes, I um… I recall that, yes. Wow, though. Tomorrow?” Dorothy asked, for some reason nodding her head up and down weakly. “That’s… very short notice. Are you sure she’s not going to need time to prepare it for you? You can stay here until it’s ready, you don’t need to go and move into an empty house…”

Shayla tilted her head. She noticed that Dorothy sounded almost a little desperate to keep him around longer.

“Suzette, Byng and I are all going to go and clean it up tomorrow. She sounded pretty confident that we would have it done by nightfall, so I’m not too worried about it. If I have to stay here then that’s what happens, we’ll see.”

“I see. You have an active love life these days, so it only makes sense you don’t want to live here anymore… It’s not like you can really get any privacy even though you installed that lock on your door…”

“Yeah. That’s the main reason. I would rather sleep somewhere that I can actually… um…”

“Fuck,” Tammy finished his sentence most helpfully.

“More or less…” Coye blushed. “But hey, it doesn’t sound like it’s going to be a very long walk to get here. I’ll still hang around the guild a lot and I imagine I’m not always going to feel like cooking, so I’m probably gonna want to still eat here pretty often especially if there’s a bard hanging around. Not to mention the guild is my bank, too so… There’s all sorts of reasons I’m gonna keep having to come in.”

Dorothy thought about it for a moment before realizing that he was right. Once she understood things weren’t as bad as they sounded and that he would still be a large part of her life, she eased up and fought back a rather large smile. “Yeah. It looks like you will…” she said, as if that wasn’t already obvious.

Shayla was suspicious of Dorothy’s sudden change in attitude when it came to Coye. She gotten softer lately, when she wasn’t putting distance between them that is. Tammy noticed it too. In fact, she thought this was the beginning of a tender moment between her and her employee. Though she lacked in attention span, she did not lack in sympathy. She decided to exit out of the scenario and let them have time to grow.

“Oh no,” Tammy exclaimed unconvincingly. “I think I left something in the other room.” She said, only to pull the same trick she did earlier in the day. She slung off and close the door behind her, keep an eye open just a crack so she could continue to spy on the developing drama.

Shayla nodded in approval, then resolved to work past her own issues and give the boy a little push. Just a small one. She wasn’t that over her initial distaste of Dorothy, but she was working on it.

‘Hey, I think somethings going on with her. You might want to ask her if everything is alright.’

Knowing how rare it was for Shayla to support him when it came to the guild mistress, Coye jumped on the chance to follow her expert feminine insight. “Hey, Dorothy? Are you OK about this?”

Dorothy adjusted her glasses and looked away, her smile becoming crooked and nervous as her sweat began increasing. “I don’t know, it’s funny you should ask. This might sound a little… Strange… But I just never really consider that there might be a day where I couldn’t immediately come to you with a problem and get your help. I rely on you more than I do anyone else… Frankly, more than I should… But… You’ve just always been there for me, and I haven’t always appreciated that I think…”

Coye’s Heart pounded louder than the roar of a dragon. Already Shayla was regretting her kindly decision – he was getting really worked up over this. Her inferiority complex was already kicking her ass today thanks to feeling like a third wheel, but at least her partner was happy…

“Didn’t I just say I wouldn’t even be very far? Hell, you could even visit me sometime if you wanted…”

Dorothy blinked and almost dropped her glasses again. She wanted to say something but all that came out was so nervous stuttering. Coye thought he heard the words improper conduct and inappropriate, but they were strong together and he chose to ignore them unless she made it more obvious.

Well aware of the fact that she looks like a lunatic, Dorothy cleared her throat and pulled out a handkerchief to help with her sweating problem. “I can’t exactly do that, but it’s not the distance that I find so upsetting. I guess you could say it’s the principle of the matter? Maybe I’m jealous that you’re moving on to bigger and better things, well I’ll still keep on doing the same old same old… Oh no, that must sound awfully petty of me doesn’t it?”

“I don’t mind petty girls,” Coye smiled, totally unaware of how forward he was being.

Shayla meanwhile rolled her eyes and mumbled, ‘very funny.’

“Is… Is that so?” Dorothy remarked. Luckily, she could be fairly dense as well and didn’t even pick up on the fact that he was inadvertently flirting with her.

“Yeah. There’s something I want you to know, Dorothy. This doesn’t change anything between us. I’ve kind of always made it a point to help you since… No one else really seems to do the same… And I don’t intend to stop. If you ever have a problem – ever – anything at all, then…” It finally caught up with him how embarrassing what he wanted to say actually would be when he said it. Coye waited a moment to gather his nerves and took in a deep breath of air before looking at Dorothy and finishing his thoughts, saying, “Forget all about your code of conduct and knock on my door. I’ll always answer it for you, and you can come in and tell me everything that’s wrong before I go and make everything better. Sound good?”

Shayla was in disbelief that he could actually talk to her like this. This was some grade a romantic dialogue, she thought, certainly a lot better than the shit she skimmed in Suzette‘s naughty book collection. Even more concerning was how effective His words looked like they were.

Now, it was Dorothy’s heart that beat louder than a dragon. She stared at him for what must have felt like minutes. This was even more intense than she froze up before. She never felt like this in her entire life. What was she supposed to do in this sort of situation? What was she supposed to say?

Her face was red. Her breathing, heavy. Even her knees started to get wobbly as her mental shut down intensified.

“Ah, I… I ah… ahaha… I…” Dorothy struggled to form a coherent sentence, which is when the door opened again and Tammy, sweet, sweet Tammy arrived to deliver Dorothy from her confusion.

She stepped forward and then pressed the back of her hand against Dorothy’s sweaty forehead. She clicked her tongue. “Looks like boss is getting a little fever. I think you should go grab some dinner or something, I’ll take care of this.”

“Oh,” Coye frowned, concerned. “Do you need any help or anything? Should I go get the healer or-“

“What you should do is give her some room. Now scram.” Tammy took Dorothy‘s hand and let her out from behind the front desk as Coye and Shayla watched her go. They left the room shortly after, leaving the both of them in confusion.

Coye, Dense as ever, didn’t realize the full impact of his words. Shayla did, but she had been kind enough for one day. If he couldn’t figure it out then she wasn’t going to spell it out for him.

“Do you think she’s OK?” He mumbled up at his hat.

‘What are you asking me for? Shut up and go get dinner already, I’m hungry!’ Shayla snapped at him, tapping her fist against the top of his skull once again.

Coye wasn’t sure where Shayla‘s attitude was coming from him, but he didn’t want to make it any worse so into the cafeteria he went.

At the same time, Tammy had just led Dorothy to her bedroom on the third floor. She was still feeling out of it even as Tammy ushered her into the room and went to open a window to cover up the stale smell of dusty pages and ink hanging about the place.

“Wait… What am I doing here?” Dorothy asked once it became more obvious where she was.

“I think you need a rest, boss.”

“But I always need a rest.” Dorothy argued.

“True, but this time you’re actually going to get one.”

“What about the Guild? There’s still a few more hours till we shut down for the night and I have paperwork to do… Quests to turn in… Other quests to-“

Tammy cringed at what she was about to say. It hurt, and it hurt a lot. “You don’t need to worry about any of that. I’ll… just this once, I will try and actually focus on my job. I don’t plan on making this a habit so please make the most of this and just chill out for a while. Maybe sort out your thoughts. I don’t know, it’s whatever to me.” She shrugged while trying to maintain her indifference.

“Really? You truly mean that?” Dorothy felt butterflies in her stomach at the thought of a night off. Did those actually exist? She used to have those when she was only an assistant guild mistress, but that had been so long ago she almost forgot about them.

“Don’t make this into a thing. Please.” Tammy shook her head and made her way back to the door. “This is my good deed for the day, so if you need anything else… Ask someone else.”

And with that, Tammy shut the door behind her leaving Dorothy alone in a room that was almost indistinguishable from her office save for the bed hiding beneath a mountain of half read books and bestiaries. She thought about how long it’s been since she slept in this bed. Most nights we spent working, and when she could no longer work, she tended to collapse on the spot. Typically her office desk and other times elsewhere.

She cleaned Auguris’s room the other day to make the scent more comfortable and so she might feel more inclined to sleep in her own bed, but she just didn’t have time to make use of it yet. There was never a time to do anything. Least of all sort out her thoughts and feelings.

Dorothy begin the arduous task of clearing up some of the mess, at least enough to properly lay down. She hobbled around tiredly placing books on shelves and finding impromptu bookmarks for her many books so that she wouldn’t have to bend the corner of the pages. Sometimes it was an unused quill pen and others she made do with a sock. It didn’t matter, this was her own room and she could be as sloppy as she wanted.

Once it was over, Dorothy went and locked the door so she could have total privacy. Tammy was right. She felt like she could use a good nap right now. She began to strip herself of her outfit, only now noticing how dirty and stained it actually was. She blushed of the thought of people seeing her like this, and it only got worse when she realized Coye had only just saw her.

There It was again. She was thinking about Coye in some sort of strange, special way. As if he were different from all her other adventurers. She blushed as she began unbuttoning her tight dress shirt, letting it fall to the floor as soon as that was done. She looked down at her large breasts that always felt constrained by her uniform, and more worryingly, she ran her hands along her stomach. A sedentary Life has not been kind to her, and neither had occasional stress eating episodes.  Her clothes tended to hide her pudge well enough, but it remained a secret source of embarrassment for her.

Dorothy was just glad that Coye Couldn’t see her like this. She sighed out of relief, only to think to herself that mrs. Lillis was anything but thin, and Byng was outright chubbier than herself in certain aspects. Maybe he liked a little bit of weight on a girl? Maybe he just wasn’t picky. Either way, the thought comforted her. Until it didn’t.

Why would this comfort her in the first place? She frazzled her hair, dense, stressed and frustrated beyond belief. Dorothy was close to understanding, but it was just out of her grasp. It would take a little more. Just a bit. Then she might understand her feelings, but it was still evading her inexperienced and naïve mind just why Coye meant so much to her.

She continued to disrobe until donning a green nightgown and laying down in bed. Comfort overtook her body as she sank into the pillow mattress. This is so much better than sleeping at her desk. Why didn’t she do it more often? Oh yeah. Work.

She nuzzled her face into a pillow and wrapped her arms around a large stuffed animal, a frost dragon to be precise. Dorothy wondered if Coye Would end up getting a nice bed like this. She hopes that he would. The silver rank bed rooms were nothing fancy out of necessity, and he deserved a good rest.

Her eyes opened wide and embarrassed frustration. Why? Why did every little train of thought take her back to thinking about Coye? It just didn’t stop. She sat up in bed and cradled her head between her hands and took in a sharp breath of air.

Ever since she gave him permission to use his first name, things have been fundamentally different. Now it was only worse because of all the things he just said to her. It comforted her to know she could always rely on him. The root of it all was why though. She’s been working at this guild for five years now, and in that time many adventures had left. Some went to find better work elsewhere, others didn’t make the journey home. Many just grew tired of living in the dorms and found a cheap place in town to stay, just like Coye had now done. That’s just how the system works. It’s not like anyone really wants to live here, even the gold dorms weren’t all that special.

Even knowing all of this, and even after his pledge to remain by her side, why did all of this still way on her conscience and refuse to leave her thoughts alone? She knew it was because of him.  This made Dorothy laugh.

“I’ve had a lot of stress headaches while working here, but this is the first one that he’s ever caused…” Dorothy smiled to herself and shook her head. She laid back down against her bed and stared at the ceiling. Her eyelids were heavy and her forehead pounding.

Thinking about that confusing and adorable adventure of hers only brought her mental anguish at the moment, so the guild mistress decided she would lay down and sleep. Hopefully a nap will clear her head, she convinced herself. As soon as Dorothy closed her eyes, a stray thought came to mind.

“I guess this is something like where are you don’t know how much you’ll miss something until it’s gone…” Dorothy pondered.