Rising Shards

I didn’t have a plan in mind for the mall part of our date, but Oka kept checking the directories as we passed them, making little “Hmmm” and “Mhmm” sounds so I figured she had something in mind.

“I’m starting to question why we ate before we started walking around the mall.” I said, my tummy already feeling very bloated.

“Yeah, same, but a little pizza weighing me down isn’t gonna stop us from having a great time here,” Oka said. “Right?” She practically yelled that as she suddenly grasped my hand. She grabbed me at a weird angle and ended up clasping way too hard, making me flinch and pull back. “Oh, oops! Sorry!”

“Ow…” I said.

“I…maybe got a little too excited there,” Oka said. “In my defense, the spot I want to go to is on the floor above us and we were near an escalator, and I remember that you are not the most fond of escalators so I wanted to protect…and I hope I didn’t just make you mad and make things awkward.”

“Honey,” I said, holding my non-cramped up hand to gently caress Oka’s cheek. “You’re unbelievably cute.”

“Wh—me?” Oka said. With the date setting in, she was getting really flustered, and it was too much for me.

“Yes, you.” I said. “Do you wanna sit for a sec? Just like a few minutes because I am waddling here with all the pizza in me.”

“Sure, yeah, and I could, yeah. Maybe use a few minutes myself.” Oka said.

We ended up sitting by the fountain, which was very nostalgic to me.

“This is the same bench, isn’t it?” I asked. “As last time?”

“Hm, I think it is?” Oka said. “To be honest, I don’t really remember. Because I was kind of fixating on something else.”

“Right,” I said. “I was for sure paying more attention to you than anything around us.” I looked at the water in the fountain, sparkling from all the Safe Silver lights strewn above us. “I remember you said something about it not being fair Jeans was the only person I kissed, and that I was probably a good kisser. What…what do you think you were gonna do there?”

“I…well, part of me was screaming to kiss you.” Oka said.

“Wow,” I said. “I wasn’t sure what was going to happen there, but…wow, imagine if we kissed back then.”

“I know, I think about it a lot,” Oka said. “I’m so glad things went the way they did, but I really wanted to kiss you here. Something about being with you in a spot like this is so…it feels like a missed opportunity that I couldn’t work up the nerve to do it.”

“Well, we’re here now.” I said.

“R-right, that we are.” Oka got very jittery as I leaned forward slightly. I stopped myself though, because she said she wanted to be the one to kiss me. Thankfully, Oka didn’t hold back this time, giving me a sweet kiss. It didn’t matter how many people were around, we were alone in that moment. She giggled afterwards, somehow getting more jittery as she moved back to her side of the bench. “Right, yeah.”

“How was it?” I asked.

“I knew you were a good kisser.” Oka said.

With that kiss resolved, we were both ready to continue on.

“So there’s somewhere you want to go?” I asked.

“Yes, but…it’s a surprise,” Oka said. “I looked it up when I was thinking of cute spots to go here.”

“Wow, you did your research,” I said. I was just hoping to wing it and figure it out as we went.

“Hehehe. Told you you’d know.”

“That I’d know?” I asked.

“When it’s a date date!” Oka said. “This is total date date, right?”

“Oh, yes!” I said. “Definitely.”

After I said that, Oka’s eyes were locked towards the tile floor. She held her hands up, looking at them like she thought she was about to fade out of existence. “Holy crap, I have a date with Zeta right now,” She muttered.

“You do know we’ve been dating for like a whole month, right?” I asked.

“Yeah but,” Oka said. “I dunno. It’s one of those things I’ve thought for so long about wanting…” She seemed to come back to reality a bit, or deem that she wasn’t about to fade away from existence. “How did we go a whole month without actually going out on a date date? I suppose I did disqualify some dates as ‘date dates’ and now I’m saying date so much it’s losing all meaning.”

Oka led me to the floor above, making sure to gently hold my hand this time as we ascended on an escalator. Since it was a surprise, I didn’t pry for clues or anything. The Safe Silver displays everywhere had me thinking about what Oka and I would do for the holiday. She might have family plans with the Kilanders. It’d be nice if she could celebrate with me, though.

“It’s kinda weird I gave you your gift already,” I said.

“Oh, hm?” Oka said. “Right, the phone! I still love it, by the way.” To prove that, she immediately sent me a bunch of stickers of cats in our chat app.

“Do you want me to get you something else so you can have something to open on Safe Silver?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t be opposed, but don’t overspend on me,” Oka said. “You already got me something amazing! Maybe our tradition can be you give me your present early, and then I get you yours on Safe Silver.”

“Aw, that’d be super cute.” I said.

“But we still have time there.” Oka said. “For now…let’s do this!” She eagerly pointed at a jewelry store. She gripped my hand more tightly as she dashed inside, bringing us towards the back of the shop where there was a Cani behind a counter with a monitor behind them displaying happy couples holding up gems.

“I read about this online!” Oka said. “They let you make a dual gem, like you press your thumbs together and then it makes a necklace with the…the touching bits. We can get matching necklaces, wristbands, anklets, and some others, I think! They named it after sun kissed gems and…since I’m your sun kissed gem, I thought we could get some…sun kissed…gems. For us. You think it’s dumb, it’s pretty stupid, isn’t it?”

“No, I don’t!” I said. “I love it, Oka. Let’s get one! Or two, since they’re matching.”

“Alright!” Oka said.

“You did a better job selling that than I do,” the Cani behind the counter said. She gave us some options for what we’d be pressing together onto a gem she would melt down into a wax like material for us to each imprint on (she promised it wouldn’t feel hot or have any chance of burning us). We decided on our thumbs. The woman used her Cani ability to turn a turquoise gem into mush, split it into two parts, then made them float between Oka and I. We pressed our right thumbs together on one, and our left thumbs on the other. This had me jittery, because this felt like a romantic act out of a Raina Starlight book, which was incredibly pleasing to live out in real life. Once our thumbprints were secured, the woman solidified them, rounding out the blobby edges while keeping the thumb prints, adding a small hole for a necklace chain to go through each of them.

“I’m treating you to this, by the way,” Oka said. “No challenges on that one.”

“Sure,” I said. Oka could have demanded I pay for them in that moment, and I probably would have answered exactly the same. With our new necklaces paid for, Oka didn’t hesitate taking them out in the brown paper bag the woman put them in.

“When I was picturing this,” Oka said. “I thought we’d each put the necklace on the other. I pictured it with anklets as well, but then I worried like what if my feet smell? So necklaces were the right choice, I think.”

“I’m fine with whatever,” I said. “Any gift from you means the world to me. Can I repeat saying unbelievably cute again?”

“Wait until after we get our necklaces on.” Oka said. Once we were outside of the store, she helped me get mine on, making sure the clasp was tight and that it wouldn’t fall off. I got goosebumps from her fingertips grazing my neck. I did the same for her. “Now it’s like we’re over each other’s hearts all the time.”

“Yeah,” I said, my voice going warbly because I was about to bawl again.

“I mean, we’re already over each other’s hearts but…”

“But like a physical reminder of that,” I said. “Can I say it again now?”

“Sure,” Oka smiled.

“You are unbelievably cute.” I said.