Rising Shards

Oka had her shoulders up and her fists balled as she entered the apartment. She wasn’t angry, just adorably determined and maybe a bit rattled by nearly falling on icy patches about five times from the street to the back of the house. Stella and Dr. Diast’s room was connected through the front door, so the one in the backyard was our default front door.

“Alright,” Oka said. “Big kitchen.”

“Uh huh.” I said.

“Is there, perhaps,” Oka said. “A coat rack of some kind?”

Once we got our coats off, I gave Oka a quick tour of the upstairs area of the apartment.

“Yo.” Dr. Diast said when we got to the living room. She was leaning back in her recliner with a now half empty tub of popcorn.

“That must be super weird to come home to.” Oka said.

“Wow, sitting right here, Oka.” Diast said.

“Sorry, just! It must be weird to come home to a teacher, right?” Oka asked.

“It’s a little weird,” I said. “Weirder at first, but it’s nice now.”

“You’re too kind,” Diast said. “Alright, can I talk about that freaking movie now? Stel, that was brutal.”

“It was pretty bad.” Stella said, looking so relieved to be back home as she sat down by Dr. Diast. Both of them looked relieved, really.

“You guys don’t have to stay here for this, go have your date,” Diast said, shooing Oka and I. “I’m gonna be ranting for a while here.”

“Hold up, before you do…” Stella said.

“No, Stella, you don’t have to…” I blushed instantly. “Not with Oka right here!”

“What, what’s happening?” Oka asked.

“She’s gonna really embarrass us, don’t let her.” I said. “You already told me, I remember!”

“Fine, fine,” Stella said.

I took Oka’s hand and brought her downstairs.

“So…here it is.” I said.

“Wow! It looks even cuter than in the pictures!” Oka said, her eyes sparkling. After she looked around, peeking into my room and the bathroom next to it, she sat down on the couch. I grabbed a blanket and put it over both of us. It hit both of us at the same time that we were under a blanket together, which wasn’t super new for us. Before we dated, we’d drape blankets around each other. When Oka slept over at the big city apartment, we slept on the same couch under blankets. When we both had Feral Flu at the same time, I think we were under the same blanket as we slept but that night was fuzzy since we were both so sleepy (in our defense, we got hit with sleep darts to calm us down from our feral-ness). But something about being in my basement den, under a blanket with my beloved girlfriend…it short circuited us a bit. We were giggling but also stammering, with our arms and shoulders bumping into each other as we somehow struggled to get in a nice position. We settled on holding hands, which made everything click into place.

“There we go,” Oka said as we nuzzled against each other.

“You really recharge me.” I said with a soft sigh.

“How so?”

“My like. Batteries or whatever have been pretty drained by everything the last month. But holding you makes me feel like my energy’s coming back. Even if I also wanna just be lazy and hold you like this.” My hands trailed up her arm to the soft sleeve of her sweater. “When did you get this fuzzy sweater? It’s so comfy!”

“Oh gosh, a while ago. I’ve been saving wearing it in front of you for a night like this. But it is kinda toasty with this and the blanket.” Oka said.

“You can…take it off if you want?” I suggested. “Mine’s kinda hot too.”

We both giggled nervously as we took our sweaters off. We had t-shirts on under them, but we were still taking a layer of clothes off in front of each other. Hugging under the blanket felt even nicer. I nuzzled against Oka.

“Wait, is the remote around?” I asked. “I don’t wanna get up, but I wanna put something on.”

“Hmmm,” Oka said, looking around the room.

“I guess I should probably know where my remote is.” I said.

“Izzat it over there?” Oka asked.

I sighed as it was pretty far on the other side of the room.

“One second.” I quickly got up and snatched the remote. “OK, anything else before we get back in cuddle mode?”

“Mmm, kinda thirsty.” Oka said. “Zeta, this basement is so cozy. Stop me from falling asleep here.”

“I’ll go get some drinks to keep us up.” I said.

I knew I was forgetting something. I grabbed some soda for us and snacks, hoping Stella wouldn’t try to embarrass me again. She was too busy cackling on the couch as Dr. Diast was pretty animated in her rant about the movie.

“They had the dude like, what was that line, it was awful,” Diast said. She did a purposeful creepy smile. “’Y’know, a killer’s not a killer until they…kill.’ Barf. He said that in act one! The first thirty minutes! He was so obvious I thought he was a red herring, and then he was the culprit, and we were supposed to be surprised?”

“Ev—stop, I…” Stella wheezed. They didn’t notice me, so I left Dr. Diast to her performance and returned to Oka.

“And you brought chips, that’s my girlfriend.” Oka said as she grabbed the bag of chips.

“Are you still hungry after dinner?”

Oka thought about it for a second. “Yep.”

All of Diast and Stella’s movie talk had me itching for one for Oka and I. We picked one we’d both seen before. After we had snacked for a bit, the movie was mostly background noise as we were more engaged with holding each other.

“Are you nervous about the recreant dealie?” Oka asked.

“A little.” I said.

“Yeah, same here,” Oka said. “But I think we’re gonna do great.”

“If I have to fight anyone from Wildfire Hearts, you have to back me up.” I said.

“We have a pretty good record against them so far.” Oka said. “We should get to team up! But…”

“But what?”

“We might have to not flirt with each other too much during like with that energy ball game,” Oka said. “I might get distracted.”

“Aw, but what if our flirting powers us up?” I asked. “We could flirt so hard that they quake at the power of us being all lovin’.”

“Good points, I take it back,” Oka said. “We need to flirt a lot during these no matter what the challenges are.”

Oka looked at me expectantly. “Can I ask for a favor?”

“What’s that?” I said.

“Oka…get kisses?” Oka asked, pointing to her lips.

I nodded, and leaned in. “Zeta give kisses.”

“Oka thank.”

“Now Zeta get kisses?” I mimicked her lip pointing.

“Oka give kisses now.”

We both giggled. It was so stupid, but we were pros at laughing at each other’s dumb jokes. After a few more slight kisses, I blurted something out that got us short circuiting again.

“We could like, do stuff down here.” I said.

We both flinched. I worried I just either went too far.

Oka rubbed her hands together. “Can I say something there? Like, something, I dunno. Something I’ve been thinking.”

“Yeah, for sure.” I said.

“Um,” Oka said. “So when we set this up I said we’d…do more on this date.”

“You did, yes,” I said.

“I don’t know if I’m ready to go…like, really far. Can I say that? Is that stupid to say? I don’t want to disappoint you.”

“That’s fine!” I said. “I’m probably in the same boat, yep.”

We both shared the same nervous expression.

“You’re not mad about that, right?” Oka asked. “I’m not like letting you down?”

“As long as you’re not mad at me for not um, being. Like. Ready.”

“Yeah no, no!” Oka said. “And I’m super glad we’re talking this out because. Boundaries are cool. I don’t know why I said that like that.”

“You’re just super scared about this like me is all!” I said. “Boundaries are cool. And it’s not like we have to do everything at once. This is just the first date date, after all.”

“Right!” Oka said.

Oka grabbed my arm.

“I still…wanna do something, though.” Oka said. “I’ve been daydreaming a lot about…us being here.”

“Need me to take the lead on this?” I asked.

“In a second,” Oka said. “I think just…what would be a good rule for this? Having a rule helps me, I think.”

“Maybe like…what we’ve already done as the line?” I asked.

“Maybe yes. Maybe slightly past that line…” Oka said.

“That…sounds good.” I said. “With that rule in mind…”

“I think I’m ready for you to take the lead, yeah,” Oka said. “Maybe to start…Oka get more kisses?”