FIREWORKS...
His face lit up at the sight of the sky igniting in bursts of colors, firework after firework exploding into the clear night one after the other.
"Okay, I have to admit that the fireworks part was something I planned only today." Emma confessed, mostly admiring him rather than the pyrotechnics.
They were silent for a while as the sky continued to be a rainbow of disappearing sprinkles.
"Is this how the heroine in the anime feel after the guy serenades her and everything?" Oliver asked just as the fireworks died down for a break. Usually, he was the one doing the serenading, so it felt nice to be the one being pampered for a change. Better yet, Emma was the one pampering him.
Emma looked at him, but was unable to ask him to repeat the question when he suddenly closed the gap between them in the gondola and took her in his arms. The hug was so unexpected, she hadn't the time nor the space to react right. But the way he held her, how it felt like he didn't want to let go yet keep her safe like she was more precious than any china, was what made her head go warm and fuzzy and stopped her from really thinking straight enough to move her body.
"Emma."
She got herself back, but still she didn't move. His hug tightened though, but it didn't hurt. Her face was warm too, but so was his so quits. "Yeah?"
"This is the best advanced birthday gift ever."
She breathed. "So you remembered tomorrow was your birthday after all?"
He chuckled, resting his face at the crook of her neck. "I'm not like some people around here, FYI."
She hit him in the back hard enough for him to grunt. He still didn't let go though. "Did you know? I've liked you even before we met at Troffer's Brook." She felt him flinch, so she wrapped her arms around him so he wouldn't go anywhere. The fireworks were starting up again though, so she had to make sure her words were getting into his ear so she wouldn't have to repeat herself. "It was just a crush though, the type any normal kid would have on the popular dude. But then we got together, became friends, and our time together, the time you spend only with me because I asked for it... It was special to me, because at those times, you were with me and only me."
She found herself hugging him tighter, clinging on the back of his blazer jacket.
"So when I found out I liked you more than a friend, I got scared of anyone finding out we were friends, because then they'd find out you were giving me special attention. If anyone asked you for the same privilege, society-wise, I wouldn't have the right to stop you from accepting, because no matter what we say, deep down, we both know the troll romance we branded ourselves with isn't really a thing, right?"
He wanted to see her face. He tried to lean back and reassure her she wasn't the only one, but she kept him still, burying her face at the crook of his neck.
They stayed like that, silent for a while as the outside continued to boom, him kneeling on the floor and her leaning forward from her seat, both in each other's arms.
"So, no matter what, I didn't want anyone else to have the same relationship I have with you." She continued, her face burning warmer with each sentence she confessed. "Even if we weren't real, I wanted to have something for us, something only the two of us had. I could've just kept telling myself that, that in some alternate universe out there, we were a real couple, but in the end, whenever we'd start getting so close, I'd start realizing how much I hated having to separate. Until... Finally, you asked me that."
"Asked you what?" He couldn't help question.
"You asked me to join you here. After that, all I could think about was coming here with you. Then I started thinking of going around the whole city. Then farther. And farther... and farther. Just the two of us."
Her hold was weakening, so he took his chance to lean back, and met her face to face. She wouldn't look at him, her head down and lower lip bit, her face a tinge redder than his.
Somewhere, the last rocket was being lit as a band finished playing a love ballad.
Oliver held her chin, tilted her head up so she would look at him, and smiled from the heart so she'd know how much he loved her.
"Gather every point of jealousy you've ever felt toward me. Every time you thought I looked cute or cool and outright gorgeous yet still saw me as Oliver, the insecure heartthrob wanting to meet everyone's expectations. Every time you wanted to scream at the top of your lungs what you truly felt but was never able to because you were scared I'd reject you."
She tried pushing his hand away.
He held firm, keeping his eyes on her and leaning forward to the point their noses brushed against each other. "Now, multiply all those times by five years, and that's how I've felt all this time."
His breath smelled of mint. She met his eyes, hers of shock and his of determination, sincere. "You mean it wasn't recently that you...?"
He pulled back, shaking his head as he rested the hand that once held her chin on her shoulder. "Em, and you think I've been dense? You planned this entire extravaganza! Weren't you planning on confessing then?"
She stared down at the floor. "Actually, I was planning on letting whatever happened, happen. B-because if you ever rejected me, then we'd have been seen in public anyway, so the relationship I treasured died along with my expectations."
"And if I reciprocated?"
She stared at him, neither blinking. "Are you reciprocating?"
He glared.
"Yes! Yes! You are! I see that now! Sorry for denying what was obvious in front of me this whole time! Jeez!" She pouted in annoyance. "It's not my fault I was always nervous around you that I didn't notice though. Falling in love is a lot harder than how they put it out to be."
He rolled his eyes heavenward. "Tell me about it."
She looked up at him, and he leaned forward, his lips meeting hers, catching her by surprise.
It was an innocent, chaste kiss that never went farther than their lips, but her heartbeat was so loud that it drowned out the massive explosion of the final firework. A blast of DDA's colors exploding into a gigantic heart with butterfly wings, followed by an array of random, smaller fireworks exploding in different areas of the sky around the larger heart.
Fireworks were such pretty things, Emma thought as she deepened their kiss, pulling onto the lapels of Oliver's blazer, the heartthrob more than welcoming her advances.
There were a dozen thousand and more sayings comparing fireworks with life, and Emma loved each and every one of them. How your life begins in a container, pushed by a light that would send you rocketing. Some went up to the heavens, others go wrong and hit the ground, but all leaving an impact, an explosion for everyone else to hear, some to remember, most to forget, but the lives touched by the sound would always remain marked, even if the lives didn't know it themselves. And then you disperse into different directions, slowly disappearing, as was life, whether it had been lived extravagantly or ordinarily, it was fleeting, ultimately turning into nothingness.
But the remnants remain in the air, stagnant for a while before going away as well, but the impact remains there for as long as others will to remember it. And when the day comes that she and might as well everyone else disappears and leave their own individual impact, both the light and remnants drifting away, she'd be content with having touched a few lives here and there, content whether she'd live extravagantly or ordinarily no matter how fleeting.
God, she sounded like she was saying goodbye to him. But that wasn't the case, she decided. No, this was something new. A new chapter opens at the end this one, and she wasn't bidding farewell, but instead, greeting a brand new hello.
All her life she had sharpened her abilities as a comedian, the one able to make anyone laugh, the class clown.
All his life, he'd done nothing but flirt, impress, and flirt; the heartthrob, the unconscious Casanova.
And now they were together, him hers and vice versa.
She was content.
Content that she was in the arms of the person she loved that eve of his birthday, and possibly forever onwards.
She's been in love with Oliver Samder for the longest while now, and she didn't mind falling for him even more.
Happy birthday, Oliver. This gift from me to you, I'm glad you accepted it.