Rising Shards

As we continued hanging ornaments, Stella kept getting distracted by the movie every few minutes, and Zeta and I kept getting distracted by trying to hang ornaments from Zeta’s tail. Dr. Diast arrived, a bit of snow on her hat and the shoulders of her coat that she shook off.

“Evy! Hope you don’t mind that we started without you,” Stella said.

“No worries!” Dr. Diast said.

“I should probably check on that batch of cookies,” Stella said.

“Oh, hey, Oka’s here,” Dr. Diast said. “Howdy, Oka.”

“I am indeed here,” I said.

Dr. Diast helped us finish up ornaments as Stella got the cookies ready. I was glad I was considered to be trustable by Diast and Stella not to blab about their relationship because they were precious together. I asked Diast if she had any advice for my holiday dilemma.

“I say live it up and have as much fun as you can,” Diast said as Stella brought a plate of cookies into the living room. “That’s my method for turning something with bad vibes associated with it into something with good vibes. Overwhelm it with the good vibes. As for my holiday business, it’s usually just movies. I always watch Guy with a Newspaper, that’s a classic.”

“We just had that on in the background,” Stella said.

“Gasp, without me?” Dr. Diast said.

“Did you just say ‘gasp’ out loud?” Stella asked. “Dork.”

“That’s not super dorky though, right?” Diast said. “Although you’ve known me long enough to know plenty of things that I’m dorky about, so I guess dork is fair.”

“I’m a dork too, so I suppose we are united in our dork-ery.” Stella said.

As those two continued flirting, Zeta and I went feral on the cookies, devouring about half the plate almost immediately. They had little chocolate chip bits that had silver sugar coating on them, they got all mushy over Zeta’s face and it was adorable. I had a sudden urge to be alone with her for things I would not even hint at mentioning with Stella and Dr. Diast there. Like holding hands and cuddling!

“Did you two have any other holiday plans coming up?” Stella asked.

“Kalei mentioned that she goes to the lights with her mom every year,” I said. “I’m not sure when we’re going to do that but hopefully soon!”

“Would it be too much to ask to bring us along?” Stella asked. “Or me at least, I dunno if Evy wants to meet Kalei’s mom. Explaining the whole us deal and all.”

“I have met her,” Dr. Diast thought it over. “I feel like she’d be cool about us.”

“Yeah!” I said. “Kalei’s mom is super cool!”

“Hold up though,” Dr. Diast said. “Kalei’s mom would be cool, but I don’t know if Kalei herself would. I’m not prepared for that just yet.”

“Hm.” Stella said. She and Dr. Diast shared that ‘silently communicating with each other’ look.

“Maybe you take Zeta this time, and you and I go on a date to the lights maybe tomorrow?”

“Yep, that’s what I’m thinking too,” Stella said.

“You OK with me staying behind, Zeta?” Diast asked.

“I guess,” Zeta said. “It would probably be a whole thing if Kalei found out at the light show. That might overshadow the uh, the things that shouldn’t be…in shadow, because it’s a light.” She coughed. “Yeah.”

“Yeah!” I said. It was important to me to be supportive of my girlfriend even when she flubbed a joke.

After cookies and another movie (Diast wanted to watch that newspaper guy one, but got outvoted because we didn't want it on twice in one day), Stella began making a silver roast, which, if you can believe it, I’d never had before. While the adults were preparing dinner, Zeta and I went down to her den.

“So, has today been a good vibe inducing Safe Silver time?” Zeta asked. “Stella’s not too much, is she?”

“It’s been perfect,” I said. “Well, almost perfect.”

“Hm?” Zeta said. “Something wrong?”

It was another case where we only had a brief window alone, but I wanted to make the most of it.

“Um, not wrong exactly,” I said as we nuzzled together. “Would it bother you, festive a mood as today’s been, if I…” I poked my pointer fingers together. “Did some…romantic behaviors…? In your direction? Together with you?” I was being very smooth here, obviously. Luckily, Zeta understood my dorkier-than-Diast level language, and even better, reacted like I had actually said something incredibly smooth.

“I don’t think I would be opposed in the slightest,” Zeta said. She leaned in close and whispered, “What sort of behaviors are you thinking?” Her warm breath on my ear gave me a slight shiver.

“I did really want to cuddle,” I said. “But I guess we’re already doing that.”

Zeta giggled. “Yeah, true…” She looked at me, waiting for me to make my move. After some really helpful talks, Zeta and I agreed that we’d play it by ear for who would take the lead for our romantic behaviors. Going by her soft smile, Zeta was silently offering me the reins here.

“I really want to kiss you,” I said. We’d kissed before of course, so this wasn’t a mind-blowing thing for me to ask. But it felt like it was. Every time we kissed, I felt like my entire self was rearranging from the energy. Even just verbalizing that felt like a lot.

“I really want you to,” Zeta said.

I had spent so long convinced it would never happen, and now I had Zeta Faleur across from me, asking me to kiss her. I felt so grateful for the lips that awaited me as I leaned in, gently kissing her to start. All my worries about my own life, this confusing holiday, my baggage at Tesata, it faded away against Zeta’s gentle kiss. My hands brushed through her long hair until they settled against her cheeks. I held her like she was a delicate work of art. We didn’t get too wound up, just trading sweet kisses, but that fit the mood of the day perfectly.

“I wanna get you something amazing for Safe Silver,” I said. I didn’t have a clue yet what I wanted to get, but I knew it had to be something good to match all the good she brought me.

“This is already a lovely gift, Oka,” Zeta said. “I don’t taste too much like cookies, do I?”

“Only kinda,” I said. “I probably did, too, right?”

“Just a bit,” Zeta said.

Time blurred a bit in the next kiss and in the next cuddle. I felt like I could best all the bad vibes of Tesata Safe Silvers if I had my Zeta.

“Heyyy!” Stella called from upstairs. “Food’s ready!”

Zeta and I shared a disappointed glance at each other.

“Be right up!” Zeta said. She got up first, holding her hand out to me. She pulled me up into an almost dance move twirl deal, that we quickly turned into one more hug before returning upstairs.

“Let’s pick this up again soon, yeah?” I said as Zeta rested her head against me.

“Definitely.”

I really wanted to find some place where Zeta and I could be alone and get our lovey dovey time uninterrupted. I also wanted my first happy Safe Silver season to be filled with lots and lots of kisses with Zeta.