Hello [Gabe]

It was another morning spent at the church Athena had found refuge the last days. Today the girl had found herself looking at her cellphone's screen, specifically over a certain contract named Gabe. She had ghosted him after starting her secret mission on Suzie Q now she was finally back but hadn't worked the courage to contact him.

"Come on, Athena" she said to herself "It's just a phone no reason to be afraid of it... he is probably just worried about you so it's a good thing to send him a message. Send him something sincere and nice, a good conversation opener to warm him up. Surely he'll understand."

Athena took a deep breath and began forming her message. It only took a few seconds before she hit send.

"You dumb bitch" She said again to herself as she read her own text.

Gabe was in the middle of taking a shower when he heard his phone ring. He decided to ignore it for the time being in order to finish, trying to relax and warm up a little bit before changing into his robe. Gabe still had some free time before he had to go out, so he wanted to feel refreshed before that came about.

"Ah, nothing like a nice warm shower to calm the nerves..."

However, as Gabe walked over to his phone to see who it was, the shock of seeing where the text was from almost made the cell slip from his fingertips.

"W-what?"

A wave of emotions hit him all at once, ranging from relief, anger, happiness, and sorrow. He didn;t know how to feel about it, or if this was Athena.


Is this really you?

Gabe texted back and waited for a response. Why didn't she call?

Athena burred her face in her hands when her phone vibrated with Gabe's reply. For a moment she considered typing something along the line of "I found this phone do you know who it belongs to" or another excuse like that but she knew she had postponed the talk she ought to have with Gabe for too long.

"Yes. It's me... long time not see, right?"

She texted, however she didn't immediately pressed send. She had gone this far but now she realized she didn't know exactly how proceed with the conversation, would Gabe even understand her reasoning, for the first time in years Athena felt the fear of rejection creeping inside her. Still she realized she owned him an explanation and with shaking hands she pressed send.

The way that the text was being translated seemed a little off to Gabe. It didn't feel right, or maybe it came off a little more negative than it should have because she wasn't immediately upfront with him. If it really was Athena, did she take him as a game or something?

"Was that supposed to be a joke? Where were you? What happened to you?"

There was a tingling sensation from the back of Gabe's ears. They started to get hot as he felt that his frustration in regards to this situation started to slowly creep back up again. However, he wanted to try to be an adult about this and see if he could at least get some closure from Athena.

Athena typed faster than she expected, now that she began talking to Gabe again everything started to become easier, after all the most awkward part was done or so she thought.


She added followed by another message just as quickly

"Do you have any idea how long you were gone for? Without warning? Without notice? With the nature of the job that you have, is it natural to just walk out like that without even letting anyone know? I won't ....blame you for doing your job.. but please realize the complexity of the job that you chose and how it affects the people that care about you. "

Gabe started to rub his temples, feeling a little nauseous about the whole thing.


"If you couldn't take no for an answer....i was hurt and scared for you......looked for you! Even with all of that, the narrative started to fit that you wanted to just continue on with your life and i didnt need a reason or even a text because i didn't matter.......but.... I understand. I'm glad that you are alright, hopefully safe and not hurt..... but.... i feel that you have the right to know that I don't think it's best to for us to continue to be intimate if the job itself can call upon you unreasonably for an X amount of time with no questions asked, no way to decline, and no way of knowing in whether you are ok...or even alive for that matter. I thought you just walked out on me, but in the case of me and your duty to endymion... i know what the right choice is for you. With that being said, it's been over a half a year... and i've been dating someone else.. ironically ... i just learned that.... she's a cadet too..."

Gabe stopped texting for a moment, wondering if he should stop beating around the bush. He said it, and he was actually expecting her to curse him out and it be the end. Gabe was charming, but he wasn't a player, not anymore. He wanted to be clear about what happened and his emotions on the matter, with no surprises at all.

He wondered what she would say? Maybe she won't reply at all?

A wall of text was never a good sign, everyone with even the most basic text experience knew that. In this case this text would seal the end of their relationship. However, Athena had a feeling that this would turn out this way, all signs pointed at it after all and yet she kept a small dose of hope for a new beginning.


Athena realized her reply really didn't convey any of her true emotions. She placed her cellphone on the side and caressed her temples. She wondered if there was anything left to salvage.

"It doesn't matter...you know... sometimes I think that one of the reasons I'm dating such a person was for some sort of clarity or insight in an everyday cadet's life..some kind of answer as to why things turned out they way it did. I really wanted to understand, and yet you wasn't able to tell me anything, not even how the job made you feel overall besides the generic responses. I understand that things could be out of our control, but my invoice for the raidou detective agency with the request to look for you begs to differ. "

Gabe sighed.

"Neither of us have the answers to that, all we can do is come to our own conclusions. I don't want to stress you out athena with any more drama, the job that you do is enough. I looked for you, I mourned .. and then I assumed the worst, just for that to not be the case..but the choice of not communicating at all. So I guess, thank you for giving me closure? "

Athena posted first, she however decided to send a second text but it turned out it was much harder than the first to write.

"As for me, you know I don't do emotions very well. I don't like being vulnerable and I hate it even more when others know it. I just wanted to set things straight between us. I'm sad but at least we have closure, right?"

"Athena...... I own a casino. I run a business that I have to produce results for, and the livelihood of 100 employees also rest upon my success and the success of the casino itself. I can't just give up these responsibilities to pick up a gun and put my life on the line for something that I hardly understand in the first place. I don't know if it's easy for you to make these decisions because you don't have a lot of baggage, but not everyone's current circumstances could handle the life of being a cadet."

He had some mixed feelings about it. If being a cadet meant he could spy and give details to the playhouse, he would do it. However, it came with risk. There was a point in time that he wished with all his heart to avoid capture, Gabe had yet to know of the sacrifice that occurred for such a wish to come true.

" Yeah.... at least we have closure. I'm guessing even now, you are unable to actually call me and can't tell me where you are..right? The fantasy of dating an attractive super spy isn't all that cracked up to be Athena. I guess you taught me that."