Amber realized she was awake. She'd woken up earlier, but the ambient noise of the room had only just now set in. Her eyes creaked open, morning sunlight flooding her vision as she rose from bed.
It was still early. She was laying in a motel room, on a stiff, almost lumpy feeling bed. Not the best night's sleep she'd had. She could see her backpack tossed against the wall opposite her, beneath a strip of peeling wallpaper. Light filtered into the room through the yellowed blinds, glistening off a strip of fresh flytape hanging from the ceiling.
She couldn't wait to get out of here.
She'd taken a commission from the Poplar Academy of Sciences - a university in an otherwise small town, just a days drive north of Magnolia. They wanted a new set of bike racks, and though it was less exciting than her usual work, she figured it'd be an easy enough project to bang out in a week or two, get some income and keep her busy.
That had been 2 months ago. Calls and letters had been exchanged going over an increasingly elaborate set of design requirements - the school had failed to mention it was built on top of an alchemical hotspot, and metals used in construction had to be a special, magically resistant alloy to prevent them from gradually turning into sand. And that had been the easiest problem to fix.
But now, after far, far too long - Amber estimated it was a 1:9 ratio of actual fabrication time to communicating with the school - the racks were done. She'd volunteered to bring them up to the school and have them installed herself, back when her supply of goodwill wasn't depleted. So she'd strapped a trailer to her motortrike and spent the past day driving up, only to be interrupted by an unexpected downpour. Visibility low and her mood lowered even further, she'd made the decision to spend the night at some lodgings and finish the job the next day.
God, she needed this job to be over.
At the very least, after a night of rest - restless at it was - she was feeling better. And, evidently, so was her partner. Iekika had tagged along - she'd never been to Poplar, and liked joining Amber on drives like this. Unlike Amber, she'd been in good spirits, and having her for the ride made the whole thing more bearable.
As Amber sat upright, rubbing her eyes, she saw Kiki impatiently pacing around the room. She carried her spear in her hand, tossing it back and forth a bit.
"'Morning, Iekika-" Amber groaned. She felt the past few weeks of work's tool on her body as she stretched. "You're up early."
Iekika seemed to have missed Amber waking up at first, jumping a little as she spun to face her. The initial surprise very quickly was replaced with a joyful expression.
"Good morning! Did you sleep well?"
"About as well as I could have." Amber said. She looked at the clock in the room-
"7am?" She turned back to Kiki. "How long have you been up for?"
Iekika shrugged. "Uh, an... hour? Maybe two?"
Amber stared, making no effort to hide her disbelief. "Phiva's sake, Kiki, don't Imps need more than like, 5 hours of sleep?" Even as she asked, she knew the answer. Maybe it was Iekika specifically, maybe it was imps in general, but seeing her actually tired was a rarity. She seemed to agree, shrugging again.
"I feel fine! Couldn't really sleep, anyways, was too excited."
"Excited?" Amber asked, stepping out of bed and picking her clothes off the ground. "Heh, are you as sick of this project as I am? Some empath stuff rubbing off?"
She pulled her shirt over her head, and when she could see Iekika's face again, there was a clear, sudden worry. As though she'd said something she wasn't meant to.
"... hey, you alright?"
"Uhhhh." Iekika glanced at the floor. "Yeah! Yeah, glad you're finally gonna be done with the bike racks."
Amber waited, expectantly.
".... And?"
Iekika gave a nervous laugh, and shook her head.
"No, no, uh, it's dumb. You'll laugh at me if I say it."
Amber let a small grin creep onto her face as she pulled her socks on.
"Aw, c'mon, now I'm really curious. What's got you all worked up?"
Iekika sighed. Amber wouldn't let this go easy.
"I was, uh, looking forward to breakfast."
Amber nodded. That was... very in character for Iekika. The imp loved her breakfast- except. Wait a second.
"... The breakfast at this shitty roadside motel?" Amber asked, gesturing at the... everything, about the room. One of the beds legs had been replaced with a wooden block, the ceiling fan clicked as it spun, even the door handle had been jammed when they got to their room last night. Amber would struggle to call Iekika's tastes particularly high class, but her standards were higher than this.
"I mean, yeah!" The imp said, clearly still enthusiastic. "The room sucks, but, the way you described it sounds... I mean, you know me, heh."
Amber immediately began rewinding through her memories, trying to remember what she'd said to Iekika the day before. She'd complained about the weather, had Iekika help her cover the bike with a tarp, gone inside, talked to the receptionist, asked about-
Oh.
Amber, now fully dressed, let out a tired sigh. She remembered a time when she'd let her tongue slip, and told her 10 year old cousin the Tooth Fairy wasn't real. He looked so immensely disappointed, his tiny child worldview shattered to bits. Amber had a feeling this was about to go the same way.
"Iekika. I... 'Continental Breakfast' doesn't refer to the size of it."