I heard the buzz of talking and laughing as Solis and I made our way to Tida's room. The early eagerness of my plan began to wear off as it was replaced with apprehension. What would Tida say? What would Val say? Of the three, I was usually the most honest. What if they hated me for this?
Solis rushed forward to make a "grand entrance," but I stopped him before he could. Slowly opening the door, I peered in. Not waiting for a response, since my two friends were on the floor, I walked through and deposited my blankets and pillows on the floor, acting casually. Solis followed suit and plopped down on a beanbag chair. Tida glanced at the scene, then did a double take in surprise. "Erm, hi Solis!"
Val's reaction was a little less pleasant. He immediately shut up and turned his head.
"Hi Tida! Tida it was, right?" Solis confirmed.
"Y-yup..." Tida flashed me a look, but I merely smiled. Val stared daggers into my back.
"Alright, so let's get this party started, eh?" I blurted, trying to alleviate the tension. Tida smiled in agreement, obviously suppressing her questions in order not to offend Solis. "Yeah! What should we do? Ooh, how about Truth or Dare?"
"Sounds like a terrible idea," I said in the same time Solis said "Sounds like a great idea!" He tilted his head at me, wanting an explanation.
"No," I reiterated firmly. "Last time I played Truth or Dare with these wackos, Val and Tida almost got lost in the woods."
"That was a good dare," Tida laughed. "You told me to go out into the woods for ten minutes! And then I didn't come back, so you sent Val to find me."
"Ah, so you're the one with the dangerous dares, Ember," Solis observed. Heat flared up in my cheeks. "N-no! Not normally. That was in revenge for a particularly embarrassing truth."
"Do tell!" Solis insisted. Tida opened her mouth to reveal but I tackled her onto the bed. "No! Bad Tida!"
"I think you've made me curious. Thankfully, I know how to get this information!" Solis leapt onto the bed as well, and I soon felt him tickling me. Tida scrambled to avoid the tickle torture as I flailed, powerless against the flurry. The entire room resonated with laughter.
"I'll... never... tell you!" I managed to get out between laughs that were against my will. "Val... save me!" The dark-haired Catalyst had scarcely moved a muscle since Solis got here.
In a flash, Solis soon wound up on the floor as Val stood over him, a crooked smile on his face. "How's that?"
I gasped for breath. Being subjected to tickling took a lot of energy out of you. "Yup, just fine, thanks. Solis probably has a bruise on his butt now, though."
"So uncool! Totally not worth it," Solis pouted.
"Anyway," I continued, "Let's figure out something to do."
"Still trying to avoid telling me your secret?" Solis grinned. I shook my head at him. "I'm gonna tickle you if you keep this up!"
"How about charades?" Tida suggested.
"Yeah! Charades!" Solis agreed. Val and I gave each other a look. We both knew how awkward I was at acting out in front of people. We didn't play charades much.
"I'll go first!" Solis ran up to the front, leaving me little choice but to join the chosen game.
"Topic can be... um... animals!" He immediately started hopping and flapping his arms up and down.
Tida and I bust up laughing again. Even Val was chuckling. "Solis... please! You're going to kill me with laughter!"
Solis made nearly-unrecognizable squawking sounds in response.
We started throwing out guesses. "Bird," said Tida. Solis motioned his hand in a tight circle to indicate that she needed to elaborate.
"Um... robin."
Solis shook his head at me.
"Penguin?"
"Duck?"
"Duck-billed... platypus?"
"Tida, that's not a type of bird!"
"Swan." Val's quiet voice rose up to the top. Solis exaggeratedly pointed at him. "Yes! God, how did none of you get that? It was so obvious!"
I mentally sighed with relief, but physically grinned at Val. "Looks like you're up next, buddy."
He blanched for a moment, then straightened his face as an all-too-familiar gleam came into his eye. That meant he was thinking deeply.
"Nothing too obscure, please," I requested.
"Darn." Val took his place in the front of us. We waited for him to begin. He just stood and tilted his head at us.
"Statue-monster?" Solis began. He and Tida began competing as they rattled off random animals. I instead watched Val, giving him the stare-down. He just raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. Tida and Solis made note of this observation.
I knit my teeth in suppressed annoyance. I hoped Val wasn't doing this to throw off the game. He was Val, for goodness sake. The crazy one. The badass one. This was really not him.
As if sensing my thoughts, he lightly shook his head at me. I frowned. And then it hit me.
"You're a human, Val," I blurted. I earned a trademark Val-smile in return.
"Aw, come on!" Solis pouted. "That shouldn't count!"
"Humans are animals, are they not?" Val returned. "Your turn, Em."
Goosebumps pricked up my arm. Not from cold, but from slight fear. I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of Solis. Or anyone. But mostly him, since he was newer.
This was a common happening for me. It didn't matter who I was with, but situations that caused me to do silly things in front of people usually embarrassed me. I just constantly had to reassure myself that I was amongst friends that wouldn't take anything too seriously.
I came up with an animal idea soon enough and took my place in the front. I first flapped my arms and stomped around.
"Okay... flying-creature-type-thing," Solis guessed. I shrugged and repeated the motions. Please don't make me growl, I thought, Please don't make me growl...
"Rhino." Tida's expression was perfectly straight, but Val couldn't help but snort. "What?"
"The stomping has to be significant!" she explained herself.
"And don't forget the wings. Do rhinos have wings?"
"Oh, shut up!" She playfully shoved him.
"I'm so glad you don't work at a zoo," he replied.
"He-llo! I don't work anywhere!"
I should have felt pleased Tida could cheer Val up, but in all actuality, I wasn't. I'd been trying this whole time! Sure, they knew each other better, but...
Shut up, me. Stop being selfish. Get back to charades! Holding my hands out near my face, I formed a fireball in my hands. I then propelled it gently towards some paper scraps on Tida's desk, trying to mimic the motion of spitting fire. The scraps immediately lit, and Tida's instincts caused her to douse the table. "Ember, what-"
"She's a dragon!" Solis yelped happily, leaping up from the beanbag.
"Bingo!" I told him. "On second thought, make that charades... -o."
"Was the fire really necessary?" Tida sputtered, rearranging the things on her desk.
"Yes. Yes it was. Hope those eensy bits of paper weren't important."
Tida's face was slightly flushed. "Um, nope. Not in the slightest."
"Good. You haven't gone up yet- why don't you, Tida?" Truthfully, seeing Tida's reaction made me feel a bit bad for turning on her things. She loved being in front of people. Perhaps that would cheer her up.
She nodded as she rose. I saw her eyes sharpen to their normal shade and knew that she'd be alright. "See if you can guess this one!"
We played charades for quite a while. Eventually the game dissolved into chaos as Val stumped us over and over. A pangolin, really? And an echidna? What the heck was an axolotl? Was I even spelling that right? Not everyone watches Animal Planet, Val!
After that, we played some form of pictionary. Turns out I was the only one who could actually draw well. I learned through conversation with the others that Gravel liked to draw, too. How had 10 months flown by without me knowing this? I'd thought back to Gravel's room and realized he did have a lot of drawings up. I'd never realized he'd made them himself.
Eventually we separated into our own little groups. Or group, I should say. Val motioned for Tida and I to sit nearby. Solis had gone to the bathroom. I didn't take all the room so that Solis would have a spot when he got back.
"Hey Ember, remember that time we played capture the flag where you were assigned to take care of the flags yourself?" Val grinned.
"I see through your wiles," I smirked. "You're going to bring up how unstealthy I was, making you look like a jaguar or something in comparison."
"Looks like I don't have to do anything," Val chuckled mischievously.
"We were playing Truth or Dare the night before. Remember that dare you gave me where I purposely had to 'suck,' as you so eloquently put it, at whatever activity was going on the next day?" I folded my arms across my chest.
"Come on!" Tida interjected. "You have to admit it was hilarious."
"Uh huh. It became an inside joke. Every time I tried to grab your guys' flag, you said, 'Nice try, Em.' And it turned into one long word whenever you saw me- nistriem."
"Every time we said 'nistriem' around Gravel and Aeran, they had no clue what we were talking about!" Tida laughed.
"Right, right. I was thinking we should bring that back." Val's ice-blue eyes glowed.
"That was a worse nickname than Emmy." I contemplated my words for a moment, then added "Well, not quite. But still."
"Ey there, buckos! What'd I miss?" Solis took the spot I'd made for him.
The three of us hushed immediately, giving each other looks. We all knew what was going to happen.
"Nistriem," said Val, causing Tida and I to laugh maniacally. And thus began the first of many episodes I deemed "Screwing with Solis."
Our fun didn't last long before Aeran appeared at our doorway. "Can you guys shut it already? You're cackling like hyenas. Some of us actually want sleep!"
Somehow, the fact that she used an animal simile (we'd been alluding to animals all night) made us laugh even harder. And Val shouting "Nistriem!" at her didn't help the situation either. In a fit of anger, she shot a blast of wind into the room then slammed the door shut as she left.
We inspected the carnage as we wound down. I pointed to Tida's books. "Wow. Those sure look disheveled."
"IIIIII see what you diiiiiiid there," Solis chirped, grinning broadly.
Val had a different answer. "Says the one whose hair went through a twister."
"It kind of was," I commented, running both hands through my thick tangles. To my dismay, the tiny paper scraps from the desk were in my hair. I groaned trying to get them out, while Tida was trying to clean up elsewhere. "The trash can's behind you, Ember," she said without turning. I found that odd, since I already knew where the trash was, but I didn't dwell on it. I tried to get as many of the flakes out as possible.
Finally, the time came for us to get some rest. I patted down my pillow, only for another paper piece to fall out onto it. Frowning, I picked it up to throw away when I noticed writing on it.
"He is"
The rest of it was cut off. My initial reaction was horror- was this another weird nightmare?- but then I realized it was Tida's handwriting. Mentally sighing with relief, I casually reached my hand into the wastebasket. If one piece had words, then others had to. Sure, it wasn't my place to snoop, but I was curious. It wasn't like it'd be a life secret or something, anyway.
"Dear dia"
"E"
stop t"
"e're as"
"ry,"
I put the second and last piece together. A diary? I didn't know Tida had one.
As the light was turned off and everyone said their goodnights, I waited until I heard the gentle rise and fall of everyone's breathing, indicating they were sleeping. Then I lit up the top of my finger for some life and investigated more. I wasn't able to fit everything together, but I got a couple chunks:
"6/30-
Dear diary,
"Training was fun, as usual. Ember's still q-
-but I managed to work with HIM. Alone. I enjoy being with him. He makes me very happy ind-
He is so kind and funny, but you can tell he cares under that tough exterior.-
-can't stop thinking about him-
-love him. It's silly, though. After all, we're associates and friends. Does he even see me that way?
This is stupid I'm gonna-"
My blood froze in my veins. I quickly dumped all my work into the trash. That was something private. I should never have seen that. Tida had ripped it up, after all. But no matter how much I tossed and turned, I couldn't stop thinking about it.
Tida had feelings for Val.
Did Val have feelings for Tida?
What was this burning feeling in my heart?
Here's a slightly longer chapter! Sorry about last week. My phone works best when plugged in now.
Anyhow. Darn, my sense of humor is so weird. XD And my sense of romance. I wonder what the Vaember shippers have to say to this one...
Nistriem!
~Shadmé