Abby and Violet (Yuri Light Novel)

It is an incredibly biased opinion since it is my wifey and I picked the outfit, but Violet was looking as beautiful as ever. The way the Christmas lights above shone on us made her look even more dreamy as I glanced up to see her face. She looked lost in thought, but calm despite us being headed towards a social gathering. When I asked her what had her so quiet, she looked at me for a second before the corners of her mouth slightly twisting up while her brow lowered.

“Just that this is going to be our last Christmas dinner in high school,” she told me with a rather nostalgia-filled voice. “And how this is our last Christmas as high schoolers in general.”

“…Time sure flew by, didn’t it?” I told her, the realisation sinking in. “Thank you for these amazing years.”

“Erm, could you perhaps rephrase that?” she asked me with a chuckle. “I get what you mean, and I feel the same way, but…”

“Pfft, hehe! Sorry, it sounded like one of us was at her deathbed, didn’t it?”

What followed was a trip down memory lane while we walked down the street. It all felt… magical. The memories, the environment surrounding us, the mood… truly, these were magic times to be alive.

“…Pfft, hehe! What got you staring so much, dear wifey?”

“Just enjoying seeing my beautiful, cute wife having the most wonderful smile all plastered on her face, is all,” she told me, leaning down so her nose almost touched mine and her voice only reached my ears. “Or are you the only one allowed to stare?”

I laughed and told her that she didn’t have the right, but the duty to stare at her beautiful, cute wife. In fact, she should stare so much that a photo wouldn’t be able to capture the same amount of detail.

“Hmm? How are we there already?”

It was quite the abrupt shift, but she was right about us having already arrived at our destination. We were so lost in our little world that we almost walked past it. That wouldn’t be a problem as we got to the restaurant a bit earlier than expected, so we could indulge in a bit more walking and flirting if we wanted to.

I was telling her that I didn’t see any of our classmates inside and was about to ask her if she wanted me to call the class president, but I saw that Violet was already with her phone out, ready to make the call herself.

“Patricia Adams, right?” she confirmed with me as she started calling that girl, the name being spot on. I was curious to know how and why she had her number, so I waited patiently for Violet to finish her call.

As we stepped inside, I started that conversation, it being shortly interrupted as Violet informed the waiter that we had arrived for a reservation and giving the class president name for them to confirm it. She explained to me that, one day, Patricia walked up to her and asked if she didn’t want to exchange numbers in case that Violet had to leave school due to not feeling well and couldn’t pass the information along through me or one of our friends. She thought at the time that it was dubious for four people to be unavailable to get in touch with, but that also having an extra backup couldn’t hurt.

“I guess it did pay off just now,” she concluded as she helped me out of my cardigan and proceeding to hang it on the back of my chair. “Well, technically, you could have been the one calling, but…”

“Hehe! When did you grow to be this independent?”

“Hmm… I know you’re just joking, but that’s actually a good question… at least I hope so. Let’s see if I don’t do the same as last time.”

Last time was during our first year. Violet got a bit… Violet got very overwhelmed then. As a result, she reached blindly looking for my hand to hold under the table, Violet’s hand pretty much groping almost everything there is to grope between my knee and my hip before I got a hold of her. After that, we only stopped holding hands after we got inside my bedroom. I still lived with Mum and Dad back then, so I was sneaking her in. That could have turned out so badly.

I asked her if she still remembered that night, Violet telling me that of course she remembered, she had her heart in her mouth the whole time. I was laughing at her response when our first group of classmates arrived.

“Good night, Patricia, Bianca, Mike,” Violet said as she looked at each one and said their names. They greeted us back and took their seats after checking with us if Mathy and the boys were coming so that they’d have a place to sit with «us once they arrived. That gave me and Violet enough privacy for me to tease her about naming our classmates one by one, asking if she wants to show off the fact that she now finally knows everyone’s names. The face she made was priceless.

She’s too cute for her own good sometimes…

I wouldn’t tease her so much otherwise.

“Good night, you two,”

“Vanessa, hi… Good night to you too.”

The two stared at each other for a moment, shifting in their spots, my wife sitting and Vanessa still standing. My wife spoke first, asking if the scarf Vanessa had draped over her shoulders was new and that she liked the colour. Vanessa thanked her and used the same talking points as Violet, addressing the dresscoat she had over the back of her chair.

It was all a bit awkward, but refreshingly cordial. It was brief too, as Vanessa went to sit by Bianca, one of her friends, leaving me and Violet sitting “alone”.

“That was… kinda nice.”

“Yeah,” Violet sighed, shaking her shoulders a bit. “Shame that it only got like this at the very end of our school life though.”

“Hey girls, look what I found! It’s Evelyn!”

“Not ‘what’, ‘who’! And I keep telling you, it’s ‘Miss Maple’ for you!”

Even before Mathilda told us about it, we already had guessed what had happened: Mathilda was on her way to the restaurant when she found a Miss Maple in the wild and basically kidnapped her, fully intending on having our homeroom teacher join our dinner.

Of course, Mathilda didn’t care about honorifics or if it was appropriate or not, just in getting our teacher sat with us, which to her credit, she managed to do so. Evelyn was a pushover after all, and she does enjoy tagging along, even if she does protest too much sometimes.

“…Mathilda, switch with me,” Violet told her after she and Evelyn locked eyes for a brief second. Mathilda obliged, but just as they were making the switch, she whispered something into Violet’s ear that got Violet calling Mathilda “meddlesome”. I asked Mathy what she told Violet as she now sat between us.

“That Mathew absolutely must sit right by Evelyn’s side,” she told me. “I’m sure it will be a dream come true for him.”

“Violet is right, you’re meddlesome.”

She gave me a smile that made it look like a pink aura surrounded her already predominantly pink presentation. She went with pastel colours today for her top though, her jeans being almost the same shade of blue as Violet’s, so it was quite balanced and soft in the eye though.

More people came in, joining us and Violet doing that greeting I teased her about earlier. She was looking so pleased with herself bring able to put a name to each of our classmate’s faces that I was sure to remember teasing her further about it on our way home.

“Evelyn, come with me to the bathroom for a second!” Mathilda suddenly said as she got up.

“What for?”

“I need to touch up my makeup, and frankly, you should too,” Mathilda told our teacher, already pulling her up.

“I beg your pardon!?”

“No, it is not that offensive to the eye,” Mathilda laughed, turning Miss Maple’s indignation into a joke. “It really just needs a little touch.”

Violet watched the two walk away, huffing about Mathilda needing to be put on a leash. I was making a joke that Mathy might discover something about herself if anyone did that when the boys arrived. Immediately, Stephen told Mathew to sit on the chair right beside the one Miss Maple would sooner or later return to. Mathew found it strange, but he didn’t argue much. He was looking a bit tired, and when Violet asked about it, he told us he had been crunching on something until the very last second before he and Stephen came here.

Not too long later, his breath hitched and his eyes opened wide like saucers when Miss Maple sat back down—now with her makeup more detailed, making her face even prettier, and greeted him with her usual warm smile. Poor thing, he looked like I imagine a deer would under the headlights of a speeding car.

I also saw how Stephen shook his head at Mathilda while she shrugged with another pink smile.

The remaining few classmates arrived, one of them being Jessy. She arrived very flustered, explaining that her “Papa” couldn’t get the car started. Violet and I greeted her, both giggling from seeing her having a slip up. She turned red like my wife’s coatdress once she realised it before excusing herself and went to sit with her friends who seemingly teased her further about being a Daddy’s girl.

The dinner started soon after, with plenty of chatting.

A few conversations stood to attention, me doing my best to hear them as it happened when it didn’t involve me.

“You’re working on a videogame!?” Miss Maple wondered after Mathilda asked how the current version of it was coming along. “Alone!?”

He tried to deny it at first, but Mathilda, playing the wingman, began singing its praises, telling Miss Maple how he alone did a huge map of a megastructure the player has to explore, how he managed to code a rope with actual physics the player can use to climb up or down, that he has even done some of the models used in the game, and how her chat was really impressed and interested in seeing another stream showing more of it when a new version came out.

He looked like he was about to melt as Miss Maple also showed legitimate interest. I think she mentioned that she had always enjoyed seen a sibling or cousin playing video games and always wondered how artists managed to build those virtual worlds and how it all worked. I did hear her telling him to show her when it is done. Like I said, he looked just about to melt, but he was quite happy, even if he tried to play it cool. Frankly? It was a bit weird seeing him act like that. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean it in a weird way, just… I never had seen him acting… “cute”.

Then…

“And you, Mathilda,” our teacher began, shifting her focus from Mathew to her. “You stream?”

“Gah! I-I don’t! Forget that I said that!”

“But now I also want to watch it!” Miss Maple insisted, taking some clear delight from being at the top for once. “And how else will I be able to see Mathew’s work otherwise?”

“…Haah, I’ll send you a link,” Mathy relented after glancing at her cousin, already taking care of that on her phone. “Just don’t go around spreading it, like the idiot me.”

Another one was one of—surprisingly many— conversations involving Violet, this one in particular coming from a blushing classmate who has recently gotten a boyfriend and wanted to know if Violet had any advice for her in terms of date stuff during this time of the year. Violet gave her a brief description of what me and her did, which was basically our normal stuff but with the spirit of the season added in: walking around the streets, this time of the year including watching the lights above and seeing the Christmas decorations in the stores, simple stuff like that.

“And then, get some sweets and hot chocolate,” I added, interrupting the talk I was having with Mathilda, Violet echoing that too and getting asked if we recommended a spot for that.

Aside from those moments, it was an uneventful dinner all the way up to the farewell moment. Then, it was Mathilda again stirring confusion by declaring that Mathew and Stephen are to escort her and Evelyn to their respective homes. Miss Evelyn didn’t want to, not finding it appropriate to have students walk her home, or even getting to know where she is living. It took some pushing, but she ended up being persuaded. Mathilda clung to Stephen because she was “feeling cold”, leaving Miss Maple and Mathew to tag along, the two talking with each other.

Violet too was having a somewhat eventful farewell with some girls from our class, Jessy included, due to her red dresscoat. She got complimented a lot, someone even saying that she looked like a model and making Violet violently blush. If only they knew that Violet did model… and that the dresscoat was tailormade for her specifically.

“Haah,” she sighed as she entangled her fingers with mine, the sound as if her soul was leaving her body. With her other free hand she gave her cheeks a quick rub, probably sore from so much talking and laughing. Mine were. “Finally! Just you and I again.”

“Pfft, hehe! Did you miss me the whole time?” I asked, pressing myself against her side. “Even though I was just a chair away?”

“Like crazy,” she laughed, her voice sounding tired. “Still… I’m quite pleased with myself. I didn’t have any crash outs the whole night, did I?”

“As far as I’m aware, no. Unless of course, under the table, you were groping Mathilda’s and/or Evelyn’s thighs?”

“Gee, I didn’t,” she sulked, all make-believe. “I actually grew a bit since then.”

“Yup, you were flat as a board back then, but now, there’s something soft there.”

“I’m talking about my personality, you imp!”

“And so am I, my dear wifey,” I jeered. “What were you thinking I was talking about, hmm?”

She pinched one of my cheeks with her free hand, calling me “cheeky”. Her fingers were feeling even colder than usual, so I told her to keep them in her pocket until we got home unless she wants them turned into popsicles.

We poked fun at each other some more, letting the conversation slowly turn into silence as we walked. The streets weren’t any darker than before, but the lights looked brighter. Occasionally, we could hear a Christmas song coming from one of the houses we walked by, and even though it was cold enough for our breaths to form mist, I felt super warm, it coming from the inside.

“Hey, Abby?” Violet called since I had my eyes shut as I leaned on her, completely trusting in her navigation to not make me bump or trip on anything. “I know it’s a bit late, but… are we still reading a bit before sleeping?”

“I think that much is a want and a requirement,” I told her as I thought back to the cacophony that was inside the restaurant. “I could use a calm, mostly silent activity too, if I’m honest.”

“…Should we also add a warm shower together before that?”

“Hehe! Now, we are talking!”

Still, as good of a night it was being, going back home with her and to our normal, that was still the best part of it.