Meeting Katia

Rosachime didn’t expect to meet her coworker so soon, but what surprised her even more  was that the girl looked barely older than her. She was taller and thinner, with black hair and thick eyelashes framing her yellow eyes. Even as the door creaked open she didn’t bother to look up from what she was doing.

“You two should get to know each other better,” Felicity nudged Rosachime further into the room, “you’re going to be working together after all. Her name is Katia by the way. Both of you introduce yourselves.”

With a small wave and a grin she had closed the door behind her, leaving the two alone in the stuffy room.

“Hello… Ms… Kot-shee-ya, I’m Ro-“

“It’s Katia. Katia Talicoda,” the other girl interrupted, appearing otherwise disinterested, her eyes trained on a fly that was aimlessly buzzing around the room.

Rosachime was unsure how to approach the person in front of her without making the situation awkward- as if it wasn’t already. ‘What would my father do if he were here?’ she thought to herself as she tried to think of what to say next.

Katia smiled and decided to speak (it seemed almost as if she had been reading the other’s mind), “You can call me Kat if you want. Everyone else does.”

The fly lands on her ear, making it twitch.

“Well… I’m Rosachime. You can call me Rosa. It’s nice to meet you Kat-“

“Ditto.”

It seemed this Katia person had a habit of cutting people off. Maybe she just didn’t like conversation? It would be wrong to label someone you just met as rude after all…

Katia absentmindedly rubbed her eye before cutting through the silence again, nonchalantly adding, “Y’know… I’ve known who you are for a while.”

“Huh?”

“You’re that girl who’s father was friends with some higher ups. It’s really no surprise that you’re here.”

The fly flew in front of Katia’s face and she swatted at it with her hand. She began to watch it crawl across a shelf on the wall.

“Pest.”

Surely she was referring to the bug right? Her tone was oddly indiscernible. All her focus seemed to be elsewhere, a fly on the wall more important than the topic she had brought up  herself.

“Yeah… I’m here to meet him. I’ve been waiting a while for that.”

“Meet him?” Katia turned to her at that, shooting an incredulous look.

“Yeah he’s waiting for me here. I’ll be going to see him as soon as-“

“I know your father is dead.”

There was a long silence after that, and Katia went back to acting like Rosachime wasn’t in the room with her. Clenching and unclenching her fists, Rosachime took a deep breath.

“He’s… not dead. They told me they can bring him back! I just have to… W-we can be together again...”

The last part was a whisper, more of a reassurance to herself than anything. As if saying it aloud would make her wish come true. Rosachime felt herself beginning to tear up. Of course they could reunite her with her father right? She’d do anything for that to happen. The two of them could finally make up all the years they lost and resume the life they had. Things would go back to normal and everything could be good again. It was so, so close to happening. She would only have to wait a little longer…

Itching at her eye again, Katia smirked lopsidedly, “Sure. I’m sure they are.”

The fly was crawling up her arm, and Rosachime found herself watching it now as well. When it reached Katia’s shoulder it stilled, the only movement being that of its twitchy little forearms. Was that how flies groomed themselves? Her father always told her they were filthy animals and to swat them away if they tried to land on her food. ‘They taste with their legs. If they land on your food, they spit on it. You can get sick if you eat it.’ he had explained during a picnic. Memories. She had spilt a juice box on her sandwich that day and cried her eyes out. Her father, being the kind soul he was, gave her his. Later he had teased her about going hungry, and at the time she didn’t understand that he was joking. When the next morning came about she woke up early and brought him a full breakfast in bed to make up for it. It wasn’t much, just a bowl of fruit cereal with milk (the most a seven year old could manage), but he had chuckled and thanked her as ‘Master Chef Rosie’. She remembered how she was very proud of herself for her job well done.

The dull noise of the fly taking off had brought her back to reality. Almost immediately after, a fist had crushed the insect in mid air.

Katia squeezed the bug in her hand before wiping the remains on the side of her chair, not looking up once.

“Sorry about that.”

Rosachime stared at the mess on the armrest, once again lost for words.

“I think we’ll be great partners, Ms. Rose-uh-kime. Don’t you?” Katia leaned on her clean hand, reclining into her chair.

“Oh… um…yeah. Of course! Of course we will…”

It felt as if-  just for a moment- there was something crawling beneath her skin. Her mind must still be on that fly…

“Glad to hear it,” she looked up and met her eyes before adding, “You can sit down you know. No need to be a stranger.”

“Right,” Rosachime somehow hadn’t realized she’d been standing the entire time. Her father often teasingly called her a scatterbrain because of how often her head was in the clouds... Focusing was never her strong suit, which was something she would have to work on if she wanted to see him again. Maybe it wasn’t that she was bad at focusing, but more that she couldn’t focus on anything besides how much she missed him. That was always a painfully easy thing to focus on. Suddenly something in her chest ached.

Luckily, the door soon creaked open, Felicity stepping in to greet the pair.
“I sure hope you two are acquainted now, cause we got a crap load of work to do. Come on, war waits for no one, eh?”

The girls turned and nodded to each other before rising from their seats. Rosachime was the last to leave, casting a fleeting glance to the stain on chair as she stepped out the door, closing it slowly behind her.