rolling girl

                               'Cause you're a sky, cause you're a sky full of stars                                                I'm gonna give you my heart

     Once Miku has ordered, Iris leans in to look at the card in Miku’s wallet, and she scrunches up her face, scrutinizing it. She really had given Miku a bad card. She frowns. “Nah, Pokemon come in all different types! Like, uh, for instance, this one—” she reaches over into her purse and pulls out a card, which just happens to be a Skitty card, “—isn’t a dragon, see! There’re lots of types, like Fire types, Grass types, Water types, and so on. They each have advantages against each other and stuff! This Skitty is a Normal type, and Axew is a Dragon type!” Iris grins, happy to explain to Miku all about Pokemon.

     The waiter comes back with their drinks, and once he’s gone, Iris sets a hand on the present and slides it across the table, before taking a sip of her tea. “Now you can open it.” 

     “What? Are you kidding?” Miku purses her lips. “That sounds kinda complicated for a kid’s game...” She stares intently at the Skitty card. A grin toys at her lips. “‘Skitty,’ huh...? Who comes up with these names?” Around her snickers, she says, “Ahh, whatever. It’s cute. And... pun-tastic.” Miku pokes the Skitty card. “If this cat, and my dragon, got in a tussle... I think the cat would win. ’Cause, y’know... it’s a cat. And cats always win! I know, because I saw one take down a huge-ass dog, like, a year ago!” She nods. “It was awesome.”

     When Miku reaches over and touches the present, Iris thinks she might have to put it away again. “You gotta waaaait!” she says, reaching to take the present away, but Miku pulls away first, and Iris huffs. “Nah, not a card. It’s better than that.” She grins. “I’m really glad ya like it. Axew’s one of my favorites.” She’s about to go on, but the waiter appears, and asks for their orders. Iris orders the same thing as last time, and she looks to Miku to see what she’ll order.

     “I’ve been praying to cheese balls since I was born,” Iris remarks, smiling and snickering a little. And her eyes widen. “Free cake day? That’s so cool! I’ve been coming here for years and I never knew about that.” Once they’re seated, Iris takes her cake and pokes at it with a fork. “Mmm, maybe.” She turns and digs around in her bag for a moment, before she pulls out a ( poorly ) wrapped present. “You can’t open it until we get our drinks, but you can take a guess as to what it is, if you like.”

                  His eyebrows arch, puzzled. Was it something he said? ❛ Y’sure about that one? You look a little lost. ❜ But hey, if she isn’t going to admit she needs help then he certainly won’t bother.

♥ cake–princess ♥

                  ❛ Did you need something? ❜ Or is walking around aimlessly part of her day’s agenda?

     “Cheese balls are so holy. If anybody says otherwise, they’re wrong.” She laughs, following Miku inside. Iris doesn’t want anything special, but she waits in line with Miku all the same. She’s got a devilish grin on her face when she says, “I’m not tellin’ until we’ve got our drinks and all that. Be patient.” And she giggles, sticking her tongue out a little at Miku.

     Iris finds herself giggling at her phone as she makes her way to the coffee shop. She hadn’t been far away to begin with, and she assumes that Miku will be a little while. But, in fact, Miku is already there, and Iris strolls up to her, smiling.

     “I guess you did go fast. Like, really fast. Holy cheese balls, how did you beat me?” Must’ve been closer, Iris thinks. “C’mon. Coffee and presents await!” And she throws her arm into the air, pointing at the sky and then lowering her arm again to open the door for Miku.

     [text to: Miku! ♥] - hella!      [text to: Miku! ♥] - yea, same place. thats my fav      [text to: Miku! ♥] - i mean, if that’s ok??      [text to: Miku! ♥] - and i hope you’re excited bc IM really excited      [text to: Miku! ♥] - ur gonna have to wait bc im not giving u any hints!

     [text to: Miku! ♥] - yea!! i got u a present      [text to: Miku! ♥] - awesome! im glad ur free      [text to: Miku! ♥] - the square sounds good      [text to: Miku! ♥] - or, u kno, better idea      [text to: Miku! ♥] - wanna get coffee, too? im payin this time

♥ cake–princess. ♥

     [text to: Miku! ♥] - hey!! i got you something      [text to: Miku! ♥] - ur not busy are u?? i hope not      [text to: Miku! ♥] - i mean if u r it’s ok      [text to: Miku! ♥] - i just uh. can you meet me somewhere? now or l8r is ok i just. yeah

     Miku’s question is pondered for a moment, and Iris presses her finger to her lips in thought. “I don’t know. I mean, it’s not like my parents died. They just…left me on the doorstep, y’know? So, I’m not sure if that makes them crummy…but, I certainly don’t like ‘em.” She glances over at Miku before looking back down. “I’m sorry your parents weren’t good to you. I don’t really know what that’s like, ‘cause all I ever had was my grandma,” she does air quotes around ‘grandma’, “but whatever they did ta’ you, you didn’t deserve it.”

     When she feels fingers around her hand, she blinks slowly, and looks up to find Miku holding her hand. She hadn’t even noticed she’d left it for Miku to take. Not that she minds, of course. Her heart thumps hard in her chest, and she feels a lump in her throat that doesn’t want to budge. That doesn’t stop her from gently curling her fingers around Miku’s hand, though, and she holds it like it’s glass that she really doesn’t want to drop.

     Iris just listens to Miku talk, and she looks down to the ground, swinging her legs through the expanse of air that hangs between her and it. Who would’ve expected a girl such as Miku to have had to deal with similar things that Iris did? They come from two different worlds, and Iris has a hard time wrapping her brain around the fact that they share some of these things. She feels sad, like her heart is heavy.

     “Yeah. I was friends with the trees too, once. I guess I still am, sometimes.” She doesn’t look over to Miku, keeping her eyes on the ground, but she does hold her hand out to her again, absentmindedly. “If you really want to know, uh…I’m an orphan. Or, well, used to be. And I’d run away a lot, because I hated that stinkin’ orphanage, and I’d clamber up the trees and hide there, and they hid me, and I’d never leave ‘em until I got hungry and went back for dinner.

     “But that’s okay, y’know? I mean, I guess. I’m still kinda bitter about it, but, y’know, stuff happens.” She looks up to Miku now, and gives her a dazzling smile. “Life’s good now, y’know? I mean, I dunno about you, but right now I’m pretty happy.”

     “I don’t think you ever stop bein’ friends with the trees. ’Cause, like, they’re really good pals. And they don’t give up on you--even when their branches break, they grow back again.” Miku’s frown deepens. “I’m sorry. But don’t’cha think it’s better to have no parents at all than ones that’re crummy? I mean, my... my parents...” Her throat closes up. “They weren’t good people, y’know?”

     Sorrow aches in Miku’s chest. “If I was pickin’, I would’ve split like a banana and never looked back. But nobody ever gave me options. They just told me what to do all the time and expected me to do it.” A grin curls the corners of her mouth. “At least in the end they finally chose somethin’ decent for me. Somethin’ that I actually like t’do.

     Iris watches Miku quietly for a while, surprised that she likes trees so much. She’d always thought herself weird for liking the forest as much as she does. “Yeah, I know. I used to spend a lot of time with trees, when I was a kid.”

     With shock displayed clearly on her face, Iris watches Miku scale the tree. She’s so surprised that she doesn’t even follow her at first; she just stands there, watching. But when Miku looks down at her, she snaps out of it, and Iris wraps her fingers around a branch, pulling herself up and scaling the tree with practiced ease.

     Once she’s up to the top, she takes a seat near Miku, on the opposite branch of the tree. She doesn’t want to stress the branches too much, for fear of putting Miku in danger, though she’d like to be closer. “Nahhh, it’s fine. You sure are good at climbing, huh?”

     “I didn’t have a lotta friends when I was little,” Miku says. “I just had my books and the trees behind my apartment. My mama told me to never climb ’em, ’cause they were dirty, but I did anyway. It was fun.” While she swings her legs, she frowns. “Lookin’ back on it, it kinda sucked. But the trees were always there for me, even when...” she trails off. Her breath catches. But she recovers quickly. “...So, yeah.”

     When Iris notices the nervousness in Miku’s eyes, she gets a little worried. And at the suggestion of leaving, Iris couldn’t be happier. “Yeah, of course. We can go to the woods, or, uh, we could go somewhere els—” But it’s too late, Miku’s already off.

     Iris follows along behind, and slowly gains on Miku, but not much. She’s never been much of a runner. Climbing is much more her thing. “Oh, really?” she calls up. “Awesome! Thank you. I’ll take good care of it, ‘kay?” And then they’re by the tree line, and Iris stops by a tree. “Hey, Miku. If you don’t want to go someplace else, like, more civilized, then d’you wanna climb this tree with me?”

     Miku shakes her head. “Nope,” she says, “I don’t wanna go anywhere else.” After she has been swallowed by the trees, she runs her nails along the bark of an oak. “I love it out here. There’s just somethin’ about the trees that makes you feel good, y’know...?”

     The oak shudders when Miku wraps her fingers around its branches. And it sighs when she pulls herself into the leaves with ease. Once she has clambered her way to the top branch, she takes a seat. And then she turns her hands into binoculars and gazes down at Iris.