With a tiny sigh of frustration, Ashley eventually came to a decision on her toppings. It was largely influenced by the guy’s amusing dismissal of the previous iteration of honey, which no doubt tasted a darn sight better than corn syrup. She watched with delight as Alice’s creation came to life, her interest in the fancy Greek honey definitely piqued.

“Oh Alice, that looks so good,” she said quietly as it was handed over. The fro-yo guy then turned to her. No going back now, she had to stick with her decision. Bye bye kiwi…

She leaned over the counter to point out her choices as she began to list them, “Can I have… strawberries, obviously… and then some of that – is that granola? – that granola, and um, that honey too, please?” She grinned at Alice. “Couldn’t help myself, it looks gooood.”

There were only a couple of tables in the place but Ashley fancied spending a little more time in the fro-(Greek?)-yo place. It had a nice atmosphere and she didn’t really have anywhere else for them to go just yet. When they had a moment, she’d be sure to consult her list of ideas again. For now, however, it was time to enjoy frozen Greek yoghurt at its finest.

She scooped an abnormally large amount of fro-yo from the pot, honey dribbling over the edges of the spoon, and shoved it straight into her mouth. Eyes closed, she savoured it for a moment.

“Mmmm.” She looked up at Alice. “Okay, you were right, this is amazing. Just so you know, you’ve ruined all other fro-yo for me forever.”

Ashley laughed through another mouthful of fro-yo. “So what do you do, anyway? Are you on summer break or something?”

It was a natural assumption for her that most people her age went to college – almost all of her high school friends had after all. It was still something that she herself was interested in, maybe once she’d built up enough savings and reached a satisfactory point in her career. The one flaw in this plan was, of course, that Ashley wasn’t sure what that satisfactory point was. She had pretty high ambitions after all.

Ooh, a wave! Now that was a good idea. Ashley beamed broadly in response, bouncing up onto her toes a couple of times. “Dude, don’t apologise, I’m really grateful that you’ve decided to spend your free time with a total stranger, okay?” Alice was glowing a hearty shade of red, so Ashley was relieved to watch it fade once the conversation had moved on. She hadn’t wanted to make the girl uncomfortable already.

Her heart dropped for a brief moment at Alice’s blunt refusal, smile only returning to her face once Alice elaborated.

“Alice!” she scolded. “You scared me!” She giggled, stepping back to let Alice lead the way to this “most heavenly creation”. As a low-key coffee shop snob, Ashley was secretly pleased that Alice had a better alternative away from the usual chains. Not only was it bound to be better value, but it probably had a much nicer atmosphere. Almost definitely, if Alice was singing its praises.

She moved quickly to keep up with Alice, noting that there was actually a fair difference in height between the two of them. Not much, but enough to make Ashley look up a little when talking.

“So how do you know my brother, Alice? Are you like… his secret illegitimate daughter or something?”

Will had been vague, so it was always a possibility, although somehow Ashley didn’t think he was quite capable of keeping a child hidden from her. He probably wasn’t even capable of lying to her about what he had for breakfast. Still, it seemed pretty random that he and Alice knew each other, let alone that they were good enough friends for him to successfully throw his sister at to entertain.

“I hope they have strawberries. If they don’t have strawberries I swear I am walking right back out again. I have a craving that can only be satisfied by the sweetest of strawberries!”

The last few days had been extremely positive, and Ashley was starting to get the feeling that things were all about to fall into place. A song from an old EP had suddenly blown up in a small corner of the internet and she was starting to get hints from her manager that McKenna Chase was on the verge of going global. Okay, so her days had been saturated with meetings, which meant less time in studio, but at least the meetings had been exciting for the most part. At one point they were even discussing how to do her branding in Japan. Japan!

Of course, it wasn’t like she was about to become an international star overnight, but she was getting recognised across a slightly broader range of audiences now. It was encouraging and made her feel like the world was out there for the taking.

She’d decided to spend the morning of her well-deserved day-off chilling with her parents, followed by a quick visit to Will to see if he fancied going out for coffee. Her original afternoon plans had been to hang out with a few friends from high school but they had all dropped out last minute. Two of them had work to do, apparently, and the third was having to step in as an emergency babysitter for her sister. Lame, but Ashley was sure to find something else to do. It was a shame though, she’d really been looking forward to taking a little break from the constant rush of her professional life (fun though it was) and just chill out with the girls. There’d even been talk of fro-yo and mini golf… sigh. It wouldn’t be quite the same on her own. Maybe she’d hit the gym instead.

Will was still on that crazy case of his. It was in equal parts terrifying and amazing, with the added information that Will himself seemed to have developed powers. Once Ashley had finished freaking out and he had explained as best he could, he reluctantly informed her that he had some place to be. It was connected to the situation in some way – she could tell – so Ashley let him go. She would have liked the opportunity to ask him how his date with Charlie went but that could definitely wait.

She just had to make one last-ditch attempt to fill her day with socialisation, not that she was expecting anything from Will. He was a lot older and not the hugest social butterfly. He’d cut himself off from his dad, of course, but maybe there was a distant cousin on that side or something that could be magically perfect for Ashley to befriend? Or maybe like… someone super young from SFPD that he’d gotten along with?

“Hey… before you go, um… Okay, this is a weird question, but do you know anyone who might like to hang out with me today? Everyone I know here is either busy, out of town, or somebody that I work with.” She pulled a sad face. “Anyone at all?”

What she had not expected was for Will to think of somebody. Especially somebody who actually seemed to tick all the boxes.

She approached the buzzer of the unfamiliar apartment building, praying that she’d remembered the correct address. She was weirdly excited.

“Uh, hi! So, like… Are you Alice?”

Ashley took a deep breath, smiling before continuing.

“My brother said you’d be cool to hang out with, sooo here I am!”

“Don’t say stuff like that without being serious,” Ashley warned, a mischievous gleam in her eye. “I’ll make you keep to that, Mr Alistair! Before you know it you’ll be supervising my thesis or something. Which, I’m warning you now, will drive you mad.”

She probably shouldn’t finish this sandwich, her manager would kill her if she knew how much bacon she was planning on consuming in one sitting. They had a difference of opinions when it came to the definition of a healthy lifestyle. Ashley kept fit and exercised, rewarding herself with a balanced diet that was nonetheless filled with treats, while she was sure a lot of girls in her career did less exercise but made up for it by heavily restricting what they ate. She couldn’t handle the stress of that, to be honest. As long as she could continue to be happy with what she saw in the mirror, Ashley wasn’t about to start counting calories.

It annoyed her that she’d even thought of not finishing the sandwich. She took a huge bite out of spite, suddenly determined to consume the whole thing immediately.

“That’s nice!” she said quickly. “It’s hard to keep in touch with people when you’re busy, but I think it’s worth the effort.”

Ashley watched him delicately folding his rubbish, faintly amused and faintly confused. She hoped he wasn’t doing it out of boredom. Maybe it was just a habit.

“We are so lucky; he’s especially lucky,” she said with a laugh. “I totally set him up on a date this week. I haven’t told mom yet cause she’d freak about baby names or whatever. Kidding,” Ashley added quickly, worried that she was giving too bad an impression of her admittedly kinda-obsessive mother. “But ya, just call me cupid.”

She smiled as he moved into full “listening” mode. Maybe he was actually enjoying talking to her… Yay!

“I sing and play guitar… I’ve messed around with ukulele and mandolin too but not really enough to say I can play them properly, you know? I’m okay at piano too. Don’t give me drumsticks, there is way too much multi-tasking involved with drums,” she said, giggling. “I’ve been wanting to try something different so I can work it into the studio but I’m not really sure where to start. I’m quite into songs with bowed strings in at the moment I guess. They’ve got a nice… classical vibe.” She wasn’t really sure how to describe her attraction to the sound, but she hoped he would understand.

“What do you play?”

“Mortal injuries that were magically fixed overnight,” Ashley pointed out. “I’m gonna throw out a wild guess and say that it’s more the stress of all this new information to figure out - not to say that mortal injury isn’t a traumatic experience,” she added hurriedly. “Not what I meant.”

She tipped her head back as she finished off her cappuccino, savouring every last drop. A little cream that had stuck to the rim of the cup left a trace on her face, which she wiped away with a giggle. “Oops.” Ashley took a moment to put her serious face back on. “Literally, don’t overlook a single thing. You could be… um… a shapeshifter? Have you been feeling feline lately?”

Will decided to do his sister a favour and ignore her misstep; Ash was many things, but she would never be deliberately dismissive of someone’s traumatic experiences. “I’ve been getting some bad headaches lately, but that’s all.”

“Have you been drinking anything else besides coffee?” Ashley demanded, adopting a mock-scolding tone. “You should take care, headaches aren’t fun. Although… maybe it’s a sign that you’re gonna grow horns or something.”

Wow Ash. ‘headaches aren’t fun’. Honestly, Will did love his sister. But sometimes, she fell into the bad habit of treating him like a child. It would’ve annoyed him more, but he still remembered her being a child, which was always good for helping him deal with her mock-scolding.

Will gave a long-suffering sigh. “Yes Ash, I’ve been drinking stuff other than coffee. And I very much doubt that I’m growing horns right now, that would just be silly. If people’s powers changed their biology against their will, we would’ve found them much earlier than now. It can’t be easy hiding horns or a tail.”

“Just checking.” Ashley pouted. “And it might not be easy, but I bet that at some point people with powers were close to being exposed. That’s why we’ve got all those myths and stories, right?”

She rested her chin on her hands, pulling a face. It really didn’t seem like there was much she could do to help Will with this which, while not super surprising, sucked. Without having access to this secret world of people with supposed supernatural abilities, gathering facts was going to be a tricky process. Ashley looked around the room, desperately seeking some kind of inspiration.

Suddenly, inspiration struck.

Unfortunately for Will, it was entirely irrelevant.

A mischievous grin spread across her features, lighting up her dark eyes. “Do you like her?”

The change in subject caught Will off guard, and he was lost for a few moments as his mind shifted tracks. It was no help though, he was still just as confused, though Ash’s grin was sending a cold shiver down his spine. She only ever smiled like that when she thought she was going to have fun, and Will had been her victim far too often to not be worried. “What? What do you mean? Do I like who?”

Ashley nodded her head towards the friendly barista who’d served them, grin still firmly in place. “Her, silly. Are you finished with that?” she added, gesturing to his cup.

Ashley giggled. “Well, let’s compromise – how about Mr Alistair?”

She hoped that he’d pick up on her tone and recognise the suggestion for the joke that it was. The moment they’d stepped out of the lecture theatre, Alistair Lane had seemed much less confident. Maybe she was being too bold, too presumptuous, forcing him out for lunch with her. After a performance like that, she could imagine the need for peace, quiet and recharging.

Personally though, Ashley never really felt that need. After a night on stage, Ashley would ride the high like an excitable surfer. Being surrounded by people wasn’t exhausting – it was energising! There was nothing that she wanted to do more than collect with fellow human beings and blabber away until it was all she could do to keep her eyes open, feeling alive in the glow of attention. Obviously, there were times when Ashley wasn’t actively socialising… they just weren’t as common for her as she knew they could be for others.

The change in Alistair’s disposition was most apparent as he hurriedly dismissed her praises. Gosh, she was starting to feel bad for thrusting this social situation upon him. Maybe she should’ve just grabbed his email and left.

“Hey, just what a couple of kids from your school told me,” she said gently. “Anyone who can get a college student to show up, let alone enjoy the lecture, must be pretty good.”

Ashley hadn’t been to college but she knew plenty from high school who were currently studying. More accurately, she knew plenty who should be studying, but were probably napping.

It was Ashley’s turn for modesty. “Oh I don’t know about successful – on my way, I think.”

She went for the BLT, as per Alistair’s suggestion, and did her best to rein in any protests over lunch payments. It was a bad habit of hers and she’d recently made a resolution to appreciate people’s acts of generosity more. After all, she was quite the hypocrite when the situation was reversed. Ashley had fond memories of tackling a friend in middle school for objecting to a free milkshake. (They’d been en route to giving their money to Ashley’s mum; a tackle was definitely justified).

“So tell me, Mr Alistair, how did you get into music? Did your parents approve?”

Her parents had always been nothing but exceptionally supportive of all of Ashley’s endeavours, but she knew plenty who had had to fight to prove that they could make a career from their passion. Parental disapproval was a common theme amongst many of her fellow musicians but, hey, at least it gave them something to write about.

Ashley was disappointed – Will was being pretty dismissive of his work. Either he was shaken up from the crash and struggling to find motivation or there was something at the centre of his work, something integral to grabbing his attention, that was too complex to explain to her. The vague reference to “crazy stories” was pointing her more in the direction of the latter explanation but that didn’t mean she could rule the first out entirely.

Will poured his heart and soul into his detective work. For someone who was normally a pretty quiet guy with a relatively good hold over his feelings, he became a whole new person once he engaged with a case. If anything should be affected by personal emotional turmoil, surely it would be that which he was so desperately passionate about. A traumatic ordeal was generally considered quite upsetting by most people’s standards.

She raised an eyebrow. “Will Chase, you have never dabbled in your life. It’s always been all or nothing!” She stood up and made her way over to the board, standing in front of it with her hands on her hips. “You gonna tell me what’s so interesting or do I have to deduce it myself?”

Ashley twirled her imaginary moustache in thought.

“Vampires and werewolves, though? God forbid you aren’t going through your Twilight phase.”

She grinned at him teasingly. He’d been there to witness her own Twilight phase after all. It had been perfect fodder for the average teenage girl and Ashley had consumed it in excess for all of six months before she finally gave in to Will’s pleading advice and read the text more critically. She’d been forced eventually to admit that the books were… not great.

“It’s probably good you haven’t got much work to do, what with the accident and all,” she said with a smile. “I’m swamped, as usual, but I’m always happy to try and make time if you need to catch up – keep busy, as you say.” Her worrying over Will’s mental state had not dissipated when the suspicions that he was hiding something grew. If anything, they blended together into a colourful cocktail of sisterly concern.

Tequia Sunrise? Tequila Sun-Why’s-he-being-so-cagey, more like.