“But we said we’d help!” Hiro insisted, loudly, his voice disturbing a few birds in the tree above them.

Suzie winced as one of the birds flying away left poop on the shoulder of her armor. “And I still plan to, I just... the law isn’t really on our side... we’ll probably get fined more than they can pay us or even kicked out of the guild.”

The four members of the Phi team of the Three-Winged Guild, crouched in a circle facing each other in the woods a few feet away from the little village. They hunkered down in the shade of the trees, only watched by Whitler, who leaned against a tree, a beam of sunlight in his eyes, making him squint at them while they argued.

“I don’t care about the money. You said you’d help and that lady was kinda a bitch to you. You’d better believe I’m backing up my friend.” Hiro said, tone heated, eyes wide and passionate, and fists clenched tight in front of him.

Alphonse crossed his arms over his chest and rocked back on his heels, rolling his eyes, “I’m not going to pay to save these chucklefucks from their personal problems.”

Hugging her knees and staring at the caterpillar that crawled through the grass in the middle of their little circle, Kelsi haltingly started speaking, “uhm... I’m... with Alphonse on this... If we get... get fired... I-I-I can’t go back to the way it was before!”

Suzie scooted closer to Kelsi and put a gauntleted hand on her shaking knee, “no, no we won’t let that happen... you can sit this one out.”

“But!” Kelsi exclaimed, then cut herself off, chewing on her bottom lip. She took Suzie’s hand in both of hers and muttered, “but I don’t want to have to join a different team...”

Suzie raised her other hand to Kelsi’s cheek, “I’m sorry... but I have to... I promised... Even if it’s only me and Hiro... I gotta do something.”

Hiro wiggled and scooted closer to Alphonse, leaning towards him and blinking up at him with puppy dog eyes, “please help us, Alphonse, I’ll pay your fine, I promise.”

Alphonse blushed and looked up and away, “...fine...”

“Yay!” Hiro threw his arms around Alphonse in a hug, nearly knocking him over,

Whitler sneered, “great... We now only have three kids to ‘save’ us. What do you even plan to do?”

Suzie straightened up, no longer leaning towards Kelsi but still keeping those points of comforting contact to her, “we’ll kill the monsters!”

Whitler rolled his eyes then kicked off from the tree he was leaning against, “yeah? And then what? You’ll leave and more monsters will come or even worse, the Heroes’ Rock Guild might even retaliate against us for what you do?”

Suzie opened her mouth to respond then closed it, biting her bottom lip. After almost a minute of silence and looking around aimlessly, her eyes settled on Kelsi and lit up. She tightened her grip on Kelsi’s hand and leaned in closer, “what if you ran to the next town and sent a letter to the guild? Even if they punish us, they wouldn’t punish you for telling them and if they saw what was happening they’d surely help this village!”

Kelsi leaned back, pulling her hand out of Suzie’s, and shaking her head vigorously, “no, no, no, no, no I-I can’t do that! Walk for days all by myself, what if there are monsters? What about the Darkness? And even if I get there I’ll have to talk to the guild representative and... and...” Kelsi trailed off, watching Suzie’s face fall and shoulders droop.

Hiro, still hugging Alphonse who had ‘nonchalantly’ put one of his arms around him, piped up again, “you can do what we do together? Carry the Lantern, sleep in waystations... and you can handle a few monsters no problem!”

Kelsi closed her eyes and curled further into a ball, burying her fingers in her short, wavy brown hair.

Suzie took in a deep breath and smiled gently even though Kelsi wasn’t looking at her, “it’s ok... don’t let Hiro pressure you-”

“I wasn’t pressuring her!”

Hiro clamped his mouth shut after Suzie shot a glare his way before continuing, “it’s ok. We’ll figure something else out.”

Whitler sighed, “alright,” Kelsi flinched, “I’ll deliver your fucking letter.”