Visiting A Friend (Stella, Meninas)

There was a noticeably tired look on the face of the Sternritter as she headed towards her friend’s room. Meninas had already spent a fair amount of time in the hospital in order to keep Nanaly company while she recovered from her close call, an event that the gentle giant still couldn’t help but blame herself for. It didn’t matter how many times Nanaly said it wasn’t her fault, the pink haired woman just couldn’t get rid of the guilt. If only she hadn’t brought up the idea of helping her friend with her physical training…

The news that Stella had been brought in too had caused alarm bells to ring in the woman’s head, her worries only increasing. Meninas recalled their fight with the masked individual well, another incident that the Sternritter blamed herself for and the pink haired woman had become rather fond of the redheaded lumberjack since that day, feeling rather protective of her ever since. The rumour that she’d been attacked again did nothing but make the Sternritter feel even more concerned.

One of the nurses quickly pointed Meninas in the right direction when asked and soon enough, the giant was standing outside Stella’s door, which she’d gently knock on before softly calling, her Scottish tone impossible to miss as always. “Stella? You awake? It’s Meni.”

“I’m managing.” Meninas replied, not sounding all too happy herself and her expression turning to one of concern as she looked at Stella. The poor girl looked thoroughly miserable and the Sternritter naturally felt sympathy towards her. They were teammates and more importantly than that, friends, something which Meninas had never truly had many of before joining the Vandenreich. Her heart went out to Stella and while she didn’t know all the details of Stella’s attack, the giant didn’t need to in order to see just how much harm it had done to her usually cheerful friend.

Walking over and pulling up a chair besides Stella, Meninas would simply watch her for a few seconds, noticing the puffy eyes and solemn look. It hurt Meninas to see her in such a state and after what happened with that masked lunatic, the pink haired woman couldn’t help but briefly dwell on that encounter. Stella had taken a nasty shot or two then as well and whose fault had that been? Meninas naturally blamed herself for focusing more on the enemy and less on her teammate.

“How are you doing?” She asked in return, feeling like a complete idiot for coming up with such a stupid question and chiding herself mentally after she did.

It was heartbreaking to see Stella fall apart and Meninas bit her lip anxiously as she listened. To hear the story of what had happened reminded the Sternritter of not only what had happened to herself and Stella during their fight but with the pink haired woman’s own family too. She’d asked the same questions to herself a thousand times before and the socially awkward giant struggled to figure out what to do or say at first. She raged at herself mentally for having asked Stella such a silly question but there was nothing she could do now.

In the end, she did what seemed to eventually come to her naturally and wrapped her bear-like arms around the shoulders of her friend and drew her into a hug. Despite her strength, she held Stella as though she was made of glass, warm and gentle. Meninas wasn’t sure if there was anything she could say to help but at the very least, she could be a shoulder for Stella to cry on.

She’d try and say something comforting. “You couldn’t have known that there was a maniac out there, Stella, it’s not your fault.”

Meninas shook her head in response, taking her seat as she replied. “You’ve got nothing to be sorry about and you’re definitely not wasting my time. Right now, this is where I want to be and I’ll stay until you get sick of me and chuck me out.” It might’ve sounded like a joke but all you had to do was ask Nanaly to figure out that wasn’t the case. The Sternritter was loyal to her friends and would happily sit with them for hours if they needed her. That was simply who she was.

There was another reason why she felt the need to stay and as she watched Stella, Meninas would briefly look away from her friend, feeling a powerful jolt of guild, before turning back to the redheaded woman. “I’m the one who should be apologising to you for what happened with that monster summoning monster that we fought. I should have been focusing more on keeping you safe and less on just wailing on the guy. I’m sorry, Stella, it’s my fault that you got hurt.”

In all honesty, Meninas felt exactly the same as Stella did at that point. She wished that she’d been strong enough to defend her friend and smart enough not to let Nanaly push herself too hard when they’d been training. The guilt was so strong and the pink haired woman knew that she was going to have to go somewhere quiet once her time at the hospital was done. The woman needed to get out her frustrations and she knew that the only way to do that was through training, where there was no else but her.

“I suppose that's all we can both do, isn’t it? Keep training and increasing our strength. I won’t lie to you, I feel completely useless right now, even with my abilities. No matter what I do and how hard I try, it’s always those close to me who end up getting hurt, while I end up helpless and unable to stop it.” She didn’t know if saying such a thing would help but if friends couldn’t be honest with one another then who could they be with?