Stephanie snorted. "Of course you did."
"It was for my Animal Cognition elective—"
"Nerd," Robbie declared.
"Says the man who can recite all of Sondheim's lyrics," Stephanie shot back.
"That's art, not nerdery."
"That's literally the same thing!" She threw a wadded napkin at him.
I watched them bicker, a smile tugging at my lips despite my exhaustion. This. This was what I needed. Not careful discussion of my performance or anxious speculation about tomorrow. My people being aggressively normal at midnight in a diner that probably had health code violations.
"You're quiet," Corvus observed, his dark eyes tracking my face. He'd positioned himself at the end of the booth with a clear view of everyone—old habits from years of managing pack dynamics.
"Tired." I stole one of his fries. "And processing."
"Fair." He nudged his plate closer to me. "Eat. You barely touched dinner."
"I was too nervous to eat before dress rehearsal."
"And now you're too tired to eat after," Oakley added. "Which means you need to eat anyway or you'll crash tomorrow."
"Stop managing me," I said, but grabbed another fry.
"We're not managing," Dorian murmured near my ear, voice low enough that only I could hear. "We're taking care of you. There's a difference."
I turned to look at him. His ice-blue eyes were soft in the harsh diner lighting, all the sharp edges worn down by exhaustion and something that looked like wonder.
"You really were extraordinary tonight," he continued. "That monologue at the end—I felt it. Everyone felt it."
"You're going to make me cry in this diner."
"Please don't. Oakley will write a research paper about it."
"I would not—" Oakley started.
"You would," Stephanie, Corvus, and I said simultaneously.
Robbie raised his coffee cup. "To Vespera. Who's going to absolutely demolish the competition tomorrow and have Broadway scouts fighting over her."
"That's premature," I protested.
"That's confidence." He grinned. "The Drama Queen always wins, remember?"
"I thought I was supposed to be more humble now."
"Fuck humble," Stephanie said. "Tomorrow you walk onto that stage and you remind everyone why you're the lead. Why you earned this."
I blinked back sudden tears. "When did you get so motivational?"
"I've been watching TED Talks." She grabbed my hand across the table. "You've got this. We all know it. Now you have to prove it to the people with money."
The conversation shifted after that—Robbie's increasingly absurd anecdotes from his new job, Stephanie's dating disasters with a Beta who couldn't decide if he wanted commitment or chaos, Corvus's dry commentary on academic politics at his firm. Normal things. Safe things.
I leaned into Dorian's side and let it wash over me, bone-tired but content.
Walking back to the pack house felt different than it should have.
