Rising Shards

On the day before I had to go back to school, I mostly just watched comfort food TV as the snowy weather turned into a thunderstorm. Stella said everything might freeze over so she was taking the day off from moving anything. I think she also wanted to keep an eye on me with the potential stress of the next day. I got a text from Oka, who I hadn’t heard from all day.

“Zeta, I got a bone to pick. Two bones, actually.”

“Whats up?”

I was braced for another fun discussion about some show or book ending Oka hated, a new plot hole she found that she’d explain in great detail, something fun like that.

“First bone. SpyYasmey. Have you ever watched that show?”

“ohyeah that spy cartoon! I used to watch that all the time!”

“I just started and it’s AMAZING. So I’m going to message you a lot about that so no spoilers if you’ve seen it all.”

I couldn’t remember if I’d seen all of it, it was a cartoon that wasn’t super plot heavy so I wasn’t sure if there was much I could spoil.

“will do :3 what was the second thing?”

“Your Friendliest page, bub.” Oka texted.

“uhhhmm….BUB???” I had no idea where she was going with this.

“Sorry, that was supposed to be babe but it autocorrected.”

“BABE???? Not that I mind but”

“Not the important thing here! The important thing is your Friendliest page.”

“ok what bone do you have to pick there??”

“HOW COME YOU DON’T HAVE ANY PICTURES OF YOUR TAIL ON YOUR PAGE ZETA?”

“Were you looking for pictures of my tail????????”

“MAYBE. YES.”

I was flattered, but maybe more relieved Oka didn’t have a major grievance with me. If she did, I’d not be too pleased that she started with “I got a bone to pick,” and accidentally calling me bub. Feeling a bit brave, I switched to the camera app and tried to do a decent pose showing off me and my tail as I got a couple (at least fifty) pictures until I had one that I found decent enough to send. I was in pajamas, but despite being another couch day I didn’t look too sludgy. After sending, Oka texted back an emoji of a hat, then a ball, then a fire truck; I wasn’t sure what she was trying to say until she sent a keysmash, and then texted back, “AH. AHHHHHHHHH”

“is that a good reaction?”

“It’s SO CUTE Zeta. One day you’ll understand how cute your tail is.” She paused between messages. “On that note…since it’s the last day before we go back…I’m cashing in my coupon.”

“huh?”

“For the ‘let’s talk about something fun next time ;)’ thing.”

“OH”

“What did you have in mind? Need to gush about the tail more hahahaha?”

“I mean like…fun stuff ;)”

I didn’t respond for a second, too flustered as my imagination quickly drifted to a happy but distracting place imagining what she could mean there. Oka didn’t respond for a bit either.

“Is this a thing you want me take the lead on?” I finally texted back.

“PLEASE, can you? I can’t think of another way to phrase it but FUN STUFF with a ;) but if you start, I think I could perhaps have more substantiative things to say.”

My fingers started typing before I had time to stop myself. “ok there is something Ive been meaning to say over text but I havent had the nerve to so” I took a deep breath. “here goes”

“What is it?”

“I really liked when we made out. Like tongue kissing? I totally daydreamed about that as soon as I started crushing on you. And…you …tasted…really good. Can we do that more? SORRY IF THATS TOO MUCH”

“I liked it too!!! You taste good too!”

I started giggling as Oka got flustered from just saying that and stepped it back, then recovered and walked it forward a bit. She went back and forth for a bit before I showed mercy on her by cutting it off.

“so…let’s find some really good secluded places then! Our room when Kalei isn’t there I guess”

“Yes! I don’t want to be a couple that’s always making out and alienating friends but what we do in private is our business right? So in addition to lots of hugs when we’re back, lots of make outs too.”

“Yes. Preferably without lillia there”

“Agreed. Speaking of her, she had an intriguing suggestion that I wanted to run by you…”

The way Oka phrased things like that just hit me right in the fluffy, mushy side of me. Whenever she presented something like a business deal, I wanted to just hug her forever and nuzzle against her perfect ‘teddy bear with a romantic business proposal’ self. I was so lost in the gushy feelings that I almost forgot to text back. “What is it?”

“This might be a bit much, but since you already beat me to it, it’s probably alright? Lillia said we should send more pictures to each other. Before I told her I was good she was about to get really too much with it, as she does, but I just WANT TO SAY. I want to send you pictures, too. But I’m not good with the camera yet so please wait until I get better at that ok?”

“And by pictures you mean like…”

“Like cute ones! And also. Like…how do I put it…”

Once more, I typed without thinking. “like…fun stuff ;)?”

“Yes. I’d like that a great deal. When I figure out how to use the camera better. Mostly that. Because if you send them and I can’t, that’s not fair.”

“Well….can I send you one more now just as a test maybe?”

“More fun than the tail one?”

I was feeling bold, and I needed a win after a week of crying and sitting mostly by myself. This felt like my chance.

“Gimme like. Twenty minutes!”

I got up before Oka could text back and left for the bathroom. I took a quick shower to clean all the “sitting on the couch all day and really most of the week” off of me.

I had rushed into this without thinking, and the thinking part of me was starting to catch on. I had to psych myself up for a while and tune out the thinking part that had more trepidation about impulsiveness, and 587 failed pictures later, I finally had one that I thought looked tolerable. With some crafty posing, I made sure to somewhat get my tail in the picture. It was just a selfie of me with a towel wrapped around my waist, with the “candlelight tint” setting for the bathroom lights. There was only maybe a centimeter or two of towel in the picture, but my shoulders and collar were exposed, and I was just wearing a towel, so it felt like the lewdest thing I’d ever done in my life even if it was 80-90% innocent. Maybe 70%. I got dressed and got back to the couch. After making sure Stella wasn’t looking, and playing around with photo tints for a bit, and then double checking I had Oka’s messages up and not anyone else’s, I sent the picture.

“ZETA! HOLY WOW. HOLY ALL THAT IS HOLY.” Oka texted back almost instantaneously.

“that good? Hahahah”

“!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!”

She continued to send exclamation points for a while, until she added, “YOU EVEN GOT TAIL IN!”

“just for you!”

“BUT ALSO, THERE’S A THUNDERSTORM RIGHT NOW SO BE CAREFUL! Make sure to not shower when there’s active lightning!”

“I can make lightning so maybe itd cancel out if I got zapped?”

“I don’t want to risk it!”

“well it was worth the risk for you oka :3”

I almost yelped when Stella entered the room, but I kept my cool, tactically putting my phone away as I stood up, trying to keep my face neutral to avoid Stella teasing.

I was still a bit stiff from the mostly spending the week on the couch deal, but I felt like I was able to stabilize more than a bit.

“Quite the butt imprint you left on the couch.” Stella said as I yawned and stretched. “Are you feeling ready to go back?”

“I think so,” I said. 

I thought about that night again; the night where I ended things with Jeans and she swung her bloodsaber at me and cut my palm. The night where I sat on a lonely train, swaying back and forth with the bumps of the rails as I tried to make it obvious my hand wasn’t bleeding all over the place. I thought I was being strong for keeping that from Stella, for bottling up that night. I was obviously going through a lot then so I tried not to beat myself up about it, but I wished I had just let it out then. I could’ve had my couch recovery time back then. But like Stella said, it hits everyone differently. Maybe the whole ordeal just took a long time to hit, not just the Fang Moon Web trip. And in the end, I still got my couch time, so it all worked out in a way. I patted the couch, which helped me through what had happened in its wise, couchlike ways.