Episode Five

Selene had asked for stew, so I’d done my best. The result looked all right, I thought.

I’d watched her eat my cooking countless times before. And yet today her reaction was on my mind in a way it never usually was, and I barely tasted anything I put in my own mouth.

“Sion. After your bath, bring the pendant and come to my room.”

The flat, unhurried voice reached me while I was washing up.

She’d gone back to her usual self now that we were home, but the coldness felt like it had thinned a little. Something had changed, however slightly.

“All right. I’ll be in soon.”

I headed for the bathroom and was about to change when I caught my own reflection in the mirror. The black dress, the hair tied up in one. A version of myself that looked as though today had been marked onto me.

Honestly, today had been wonderful. Matching pendants, the café, talking properly for once while the sun went down, saying things to each other that we never usually said.

We’ve been together all this time, so why had none of this happened before? Had I been the one keeping her at a distance, or had she been keeping me?

While I was turning that over, something more immediate crossed my mind. Tomorrow morning, the White-Black Bulletin would almost certainly run something about today, and walking through the city would become its own ordeal. Not long ago, that thought alone would have been enough to sink my mood, but strangely, right now I didn’t mind as much as I expected.

Being dressed up, and seeing a smile on her face I wasn’t used to seeing. Maybe I was just a little giddy, in a way I wasn’t used to.

To keep my unsettled body from giving me away, I pulled the dress off quickly and retreated into the bathroom.

Soaking slowly did help, and by the time I climbed out my thoughts had settled somewhat. I picked up the small wrapped box and knocked on Selene’s door.

“Come in.”

She closed the book she’d been reading quietly and indicated the bed with a look.

“Sorry for the wait. I soaked too long.”

I smiled wryly and settled on the edge of the bed, looking around the room. Tidy as always, however many times I came in here.

“Here. Happy birthday.”

Too self-conscious to look at her face, I held the small box out with my eyes turned aside.

“Selene?”

I waited, but she didn’t take it from my hand. I looked up slowly, and found her expression unchanged, and yet her eyes were trembling, just slightly.

“Put it on me.”

“…Huh?”

The words didn’t quite reach me, and a foolish sound came out.

“Put it on me. The pendant.”

Her gaze was drifting restlessly, settling on neither me nor the box.

“And I’ll put yours on you.”

With that she carefully unwrapped the packaging and drew out the pendant with the white stone.

“Isn’t that, well, something people do when they’re… a couple?”

My face was definitely red. I laughed to cover it and looked at her, and found her eyes cast down, the pendant held tight in her hand.

“Sion doesn’t need to worry about things like that. Just put it on.”

She pressed closer, nudging the box toward me in silent insistence.

The way she was speaking was still forceful, and not a trace remained of the brightness she’d shown me during the day. And yet she wasn’t quite managing to be fully forceful either. There was something about her that wasn’t like herself, a kind of uncharacteristic meekness that caught my eye.

“All right, fine.”

I untied the ribbon and unwrapped it carefully, not tearing it.

“So, I’ll, um. Put it on.”

“Yes.”

I reached around her neck, but my hands were shaking and I couldn’t manage it. It was just a pendant. Why was I nervous.

I struggled for a moment, but eventually the clasp clicked into place. I let out a breath of relief and drew back from her neck.

When I glanced at her face, her cheeks were faintly pink. I let my eyes drop from there, and found the black stone against her pale white skin, vivid and lovely.

“There. It suits you.”

I kept my gaze moving and said it with deliberate brightness, and the flush spreading across Selene’s white skin deepened slowly.

“Are you all right?”

“Don’t fuss. It’s nothing.”

A pause.

“Thank you.”

Blunt as always, but the corners of her mouth had loosened.

“I’m glad you like it.”

She’d wanted it herself, so of course she was pleased, I thought, but the reaction I was getting back was nothing like last year’s — and that made me happy too, in a way I hadn’t expected.

“Face this way. I’ll put yours on.”

“Go ahead.”

I closed my eyes and waited quietly. With my vision gone, her breathing and her warmth seemed to reach me more clearly than usual.

I should probably not have closed my eyes. The small regret surfaced almost immediately.

Was Selene nervous too? I wanted to know what she was thinking. What we were doing right now felt like something that had gone past the boundary of childhood friends.

“Ah, oh…”

A warm breath touched my neck and my whole body startled.

“Stop reacting like that.”

She drew back from my neck and aimed a flat, reproachful look at me.

“It wasn’t, I just got a bit of a surprise.”

“May I try again.”

I cleared my throat to hide the embarrassment, though I doubted it was hidden at all.

This is probably what happens when you’ve had someone’s tongue at your neck so many times. At least that part wasn’t my fault.

“Done.”

Her long silver hair swept across me as she drew away.

“How does it look?”

“Good, I think. Wear it every day.”

She murmured it, touching the pendant where it rested at my neck. It was mine, a gift to me, and yet the careful way she handled it, as though it were something of her own she was treasuring, stayed in my mind in a way I couldn’t account for.

“Fine. Right, I’m going to sleep.”

I stood to go back to my room, and a hand closed around my arm, pulling me gently back down onto the bed.

“Sleep here tonight.”

Holding my arm, she murmured it in a small voice. Her eyes were shifting uncertainly, and for a moment the girl on the hill was there behind them.

“Um, the birthday is over now, isn’t it? I think the doing-as-you-say part is finished too.”

“Today isn’t over yet. I’m going to have a bath, so lie down and wait for me.”

She gathered her house clothes and moved toward the door at a quick pace. I called after her.

“Wait, wait. Sleeping together, you’re definitely going to do something. That was supposed to be banned, remember?”

“I won’t. You said you’d do as I say.”

Her words, spoken how many times today, made me catch my breath for just a moment.

“Promise me then. If you do anything, I’ll be angry.”

“I promise. Don’t fall asleep before I get back.”

She said it and left the room. The sound of the door closing felt louder than it should have.

I let out a small breath and leaned back against Selene’s bed.

Without the supply as a pretext, Selene wouldn’t cross that line. Whatever her reason for wanting to sleep together tonight, maybe she was just in the mood to be a little spoiled. It was her birthday, after all.

A familiar room, but an unfamiliar view from an unfamiliar bed. Wrapped in Selene’s scent, I felt my heartbeat go just slightly loud.