I opened my eyes to find myself battered and bruised on a hospital bed with Ori by my side. A sight I’ve grown far too familiar with. Surprisingly, everyone else seemed fine. Rono had bandages here and there, Gollie and Derris seemed fine, and Anna was a bit bruised, but she didn’t look too bad. I looked at the foot of my bed and noticed that we weren’t at the zone’s hospital, we were just at a medical care tent at the entrance of the amusement park. I could even see Stella performing if I squinted hard enough.

“Could you believe they still want us to work after all that? Unbelievable…” Rono sighed.

I looked around for Jack and realized that he wasn’t here. Anna noticed my sudden panic and reassured me. “He was rushed to the hospital immediately. He’ll be fine.” I sighed in relief as Gollie continued the conversation.

“Well, it only makes sense. Gotta keep up the tradition regardless of what happened. By the way, Arno. You’re gonna have to fill out a report like the rest of us. Make sure to get it done before the end of the night,” Gollie said.

“Speaking of work, come on. We’re patrolling the area…” Derris grabbed Rono by the collar and carried him off, with Rono whining and crying with every second. Seeing the both of them go must’ve made Gollie decide to do the same.

“Well, We’ll leave you two lovebirds to it. We’re gonna go enjoy a bit of Stella’s singing, if you don’t mind.”

“Yeah, no problem!” I gave Gollie a thumbs up and he did so in return. He also winked at Ori, who quickly put her head down.

“Good luck, Ori! Remember what I taught you!” Anna said as she left right with Gollie. Ori repeatedly bowed her head in response.

Silence immediately filled the tent as Ori and I sat there, taking in the atmosphere of each other’s company. I was thinking about how to bring up the locations of the rest of the members of New Dawn, but I wasn’t entirely sure.

“Arno…” Ori had something else on her mind though. “What in the world was that entire confession about?” Ori put her head in her palms, doing her best to hide her expression.

Oh, haha! That’s what she’s worried about. That’s fair. I did spring the entire thing out of seemingly nowhere.

“Well if I’m being honest, it’s something that’s been in the back of my mind for a while. This entire time I’ve been fighting with you and fighting for you, but I never put a word to it. When I cook for you, when I protect you, when you’re there for me, when I’m there for you, I feel invincible. More than anyone else, I feel that way when I’m with you.”

I continued on, saying “Your frustrated self, your cocky self, when you’re brimming with excitement over your favorite food, when you’re cycling through your thoughts and thinking about your next move, I’m certain of it. This feeling…it must be love. I love you, Ori.”

This was something that my parents probably would’ve taught me, but the Fall sort of threw a wrench in their raising of me. I got around to learning, though.

I looked over to Ori and noticed that tears were running down her face. She had a big frown on her face and was sniffling. She was ugly crying harder than I’ve ever seen her cry. Did I say something wrong?! Does she not feel the same way?

“Ori? Do…you love me back?—”

She didn’t waste a single moment. She leapt in my hospital bed and embraced me with all the strength she had.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! A thousand times yes! Of course I do! I always have!” I immediately realized that the tears she was crying were tears of joy. I returned her embrace.

Pheeeeeew—BANG!

“Ah!” I immediately got to my feet, carrying Ori. Were we under attack again?

Pheeeeeew—BANG!

Another group?! This isn’t good. Everyone’s already injured. We’ll have to call for backup. I looked outside the tent and saw that the owner of the stemata must’ve used it to fire some sort of attack in the air and have it burst into…different colors?

“Pfft! Hahaha! Arno, those are fireworks! You’ve never seen fireworks?!” Ori didn’t seem as worried about the whole situation, so I guess I’m overreacting. I slowly put her back down and climbed back into my bed.

“They’re used for celebrations. They’re supposed to be these huge spectacles where these small packaged things launch into the air and explode into colorful designs. At least, that’s a simple way to go about explaining it.” Ori said.

Ori and I watched a few of the fireworks go off and she wasn’t joking. Each one fired into the air and exploded into various colors of green, blue, red, purple, and more. Some made shapes like stars, squares, and triangles, while others made more complicated shapes. For one of the shapes, they tried to do Mr. Terrance’s face. Apparently, they try to do it every year and are never close to the actual thing. Ori and I couldn’t help but burst into laughter as we saw the attempt this year.

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As we continued to watch them, a question lingered in the back of my mind that I ended up thinking out loud “I wonder…what do couples do? We’re together now, but is anything really gonna be that different?” When I said that Ori jolted in her seat and stood as still as a statue. “Ori?”

“T-there’s one thing! One thing I’ve always wanted to try!” She lifted her head and stared right into my eyes with a look of fiery determination. “A kiss! Couples kiss all the time!”

“Oh yeah! Sure thing!” I quickly leaned over and gave her a peck on the lips. When I returned to my seat she wore a blank expression. The expression quickly turned to anger and she grabbed me by my collar.

“You asshole! I wasn’t even ready or anything! There needed to be buildup! Sparks flying! This isn’t like a single one of the romance novels I read! I demand a do over!” Ori leapt back onto my bed with a force I’ve never seen her express in all the years I’ve been with her.

“Hello! I’m Nellie Ruth with Lexicon News. I’d like to interview the both of—” The journalist walked into the sight of Orin on top of me, pinning me to my hospital bed. I just gave the lady a smile and said “Don’t worry, miss! She’s not hurting me! We’re just doing couple stuff!”

“I see…I’ll leave you to it…” Nellie laughed awkwardly and was starting to leave, but Ori nearly tripped trying to get her to stay.

“Nononononono! Not that kind of couple stuff! You’re fine! Come in and chat!”

After talking her down, Ori convinced Nellie to stay and conduct her interview.

Gollie

As I stared at the last of the fireworks with Anna, I looked at her face and noticed her amazed expression. It was like she never saw such a spectacle before. Seeing the different colors reflect off of her face and dazzling eyes reminded me once more just how beautiful she is. Now’s my time. Ori probably sealed the deal already. It’s time to put my feelings out there!

“Annabelle…” I turned to face her and she returned my gaze. That alone almost made me anxious and turn away, but I stood my ground.

“I have something to tell you—”

“You like me, right?”

My eyes widened and I completely froze in place. Out of everything that’s happened today, this might just be the worst of it all.

“You like me a lot.”

“You don’t have to say it like that!” I hid my face using my hands in a poor attempt to hide my embarassment.

“It’s true though, right? I might just be underestimating it too.”

“When did you find out?”

“Recently. You started acting really anxious around me out of the blue, and usually when that happens, it means romance. I can’t believe you though!” She pouted and crossed her arms. “When I tried getting you to confess already, you threw poor Ori under the bus! I ran with it because at that point, I realized I should’ve just waited for you to do it on your own terms.”

I’ll apologize to Ori some other time. For now though…

“So what’s your answer?”

“Would you…be mad at me if I asked for more time?” She gave me a weak smile. “At first, I was going to flat-out reject you, but after what we’ve been through tonight, I think I need more time to think. If anyone else was with me, they would’ve reacted differently to what I wanted to do with Jabari. But you were different. It made me think: maybe we’re more on the same wavelength than I thought. So for now, I want to think about my answer to your confession.”

Anna’s way smarter than I gave her credit for. But to think that the crux of her possibly returning my feelings would be the idea that our ideals align wasn’t something I was expecting. It makes me think…

“Anna…” In the loudness of the crowd that surrounded us as people began to pack their things and leave, I said “There’s something else that I want to share with you…”

Rono

Now’s my chance! Ori and Gollie are out there doing their best, so it’s time for me to put my heart on the line too! It’s time to confess to Derris!

Wait…the hell am I talking about?

In all seriousness though, I feel like I got the shortest end of the stick.

Arno has Ori

Gollie has Anna

And I have…Derris?

Seriously though, why did Derris want to drag me out here?

He was five paces in front of me, attentive to the environment around him. Every time he’d make a turn, he glanced behind to make sure I was still there. It got to a point where I felt like I had to speak up. After all, I wanted to go and enjoy myself. The big bad was beaten, so I think I deserve to have a bit of fun tonight. I don’t have to sit here and help him lick his wounds. That’s right! I’m gonna speak up!

“Derris—”

“Yo Gramps…Be honest. I was useless this time around, wasn’t I?”

Silence filled the atmosphere between us. I never thought that I would hear Derris acknowledging his flaws, but here we are. I guess this is the power of gaining experience through battle. Your flaws are amplified and brought to the forefront…

“I have no excuses…my weakness jeopardized the entire battle and almost cost everyone their lives. I’m running out of time. Something needs to change, or I’ll end up another failure,” He said as he stared at the moon in the sky.

Another failure? What is he talking about? The only sibling he has is his little sister…

“But you…you took out three members of the enemy group today. I’m grasping at straws, so I’m willing to accept anything. How…how did you become so strong?” That’s when the son of the governor turned to face me. In all honesty, I didn’t have a magic answer. “From where I’m standing, I don’t think I’m strong at all. Even now, the things I did tonight feel like lightning in a bottle. As if I’ll never be able to replicate something like that again. Honestly, it feels like we’re on opposite sides of a spectrum. I feel like I have little to no confidence in myself. I’ve noticed that. Especially when I see someone like you, who’s usually so confident in himself. That’s something I admire about you.”

“So I would be on the opposite end of that spectrum…I need to understand my limitations and learn a bit of humility. Is that what you’re saying?”

“Mostly…” I averted my gaze. I didn’t really know how he was going to take me essentially calling him arrogant, but apparently it wasn’t that bad. He walked over to me, patted me on the shoulder, and began walking over to the stalls.

“We’ve done enough patrolling. Let’s go get some drinks. On me.”

I immediately changed to an expression of childlike happiness. Finally! I’m going to get rewarded for my actions. Maybe we’ll meet some hotties there as well! I began to giggle under my quickened breaths when Derris spoke up again.

“By the way, Rono…thanks.”

“O-oh! No problem, man!”