Chapter Text
Junies green heels crunched against the rocky terrain of the path. The stinging in her feet from the walk was nearly unbearable. She couldn’t understand why the hell Spectra was running in front,practically skipping along the rocks. The trees lined each side of the path,thick bushes swaying in the wind. She could feel the warm sun hitting her face each time she stepped into the gaps between the leaves. The heat was practically unbearable for spectras choice in activity.
She glanced around,occasionally seeing a butterfly soaring its gentle blue wings through the thick floral.
Its shining wings caught her eye,forcing them to follow the soft flapping. As it hid behind the shadows of the trees,her eyes rested back against spectras purple hair.
A purple that shined under the light,creating a beautiful blue undertone. An effect that had to be dragging compliments in. Hell that was probably the only reason she continued dying her hair such a color. The opinions and comments of others who admired her keeping her running. Junie would never need to run off of attention like that.
She forced her gaze away from the woman. Looking down to a kid with curly dark hair,crouching down against a bush,holding a beetle within the palms of his hands.
She let out a soft sigh, her eyes slowly making their way back to that soft purple hair. Her gold jewelry shining against the sun,the edges of the material dragging the light against it.
She didn’t know what the hell she was doing. She was supposed to be working on a case,not being forced down the nature path of the park.
“Hey, June bug?” Spectra called out from in front,slowing her step to make her way next to her.
Junie didnt answer for a moment. If Spectra really wanted to talk to her she would take the opportunity to speak her mind instead of taking June's attention first.
She wasn't going to say anything until Junie responded, So she was left with no choice but to be the one filling the silence.
“Yes?” She asked back.
“So…about the case. It's kinda funny that the girl looked a little like you!” She said,flipping the conversation in an odd way.
Junie was stunned for a moment,scrambling for some sort of response to such a claim. She couldn’t get defensive…that would make it too obvious something was wrong. She had to fill this lasting silence before she assumed anything though.
“Does she now?” Junie forced out. Settling for the first answer she could say.
“I mean without the dyed hair and glasses, yeah!” She said.
She didn't sound like she was suspecting anything. Junie was doing fine. She just needed to make sure she knew that. She couldn’t keep freezing up like this.
“I guess…I don't really see it.”
“Eh i mean it's only a little bit. I'd say you're prettier than her.” Spectra said with this big dumb smile. That stupid ‘compliment’ that had to be an insult in disguise. She just…couldn’t figure out how.
“I guess.”
“Like,a lot prettier.” Spectra continued pushing to a goal Junie couldn’t find. She had no idea what her intentions were.
“…do you want me to say thank you?”
“I dunno. I don’t really care if you do.”
“…” The more spectra said the more confused Junie was. There had to be some sort of alternative reason for her actions. Why the hell couldn’t she figure out what they were.
“Let's just go back.” Junie said,forcing this little outing to stop before anything else happened.
“Oh-yeah sorry!” Spectra quickly apologized,turning around to start going back.
Junie followed close behind,hoping to make their way back as fast as possible without spectra saying another dumb thing.
As they were getting to the end of the path,spectra seemed to get her eyes caught on the sight of a light green flower. She quietly leaned down,plucking it from the ground. She turned back to Junie,taking a step forward.
“I think you would look really nice with this!” She said,slowly slipping the flower behind Junies ear,who was very much too surprised by the action to intervene.
Junie couldn’t even stop her,she was stuck dead in her path for a second. She could see spectra starting to gain some distance, and quickly snapped herself out of it.
Who did she think she was?? Just putting a flower in someone's hair without permission. She quickly caught up,putting herself behind spectra to observe her. Observe how anyone could be that stupid.
She lifted one hand to the soft petals of the flower,feeling the leaves. She did have to say it was very soft. She slowly slipped the flower out from behind her ear,twirling it by the step between her pointer and thumb. It wasn’t bad. Spectra definitely could point out a pretty flower.
——
Once Junie got in her office,she gently laid down the flower on her desk. Gazing at the light green color of the flower. She couldn't stop thinking about what she did. The way Spectra called her pretty,the way she so gently gave her the flower. She was playing a dangerous game trying to push her luck like this. Spectra had to have some sort of other goal. There was no way she was just doing this to be nice.
She could help but think of Spectras comment from earlier. “She looks like you.” Those same words repeated in her mind. That's what spectra was after. She had some sort of plan to get her to admit it was her. Well she wasn’t going to give into it.
She had to beat Spectra at this game before spectra beat her.
She reached for the flower,holding it in her hands for a moment. Her fingers curled in to destroy it. She couldn’t look at this thing any longer but she couldn’t get herself to destroy it. She felt some stupid guilt about ruining it. She let out a quiet sigh,looking over to the small empty glass vase on her desk. She quietly placed the flower in,ripping her attention from it.
She just had to get over it. She couldn’t let herself be so hung up on a stupid trick.
