#himaya

Sinag

Dayao

Alab

Himaya

Paris, the city of love. With the Eiffel tower standing tall above everything else. A symbol of France that every country knows. Sitting on the Champs De Mars it looks over the city in a soft glow of yellow and orange lights that glittered all the way down the tower. It was the city where impossible things happened, the city that everyone wanted to visit because of it magic. Skylar wanted to see it ever since she was young. The lights at night casted blues and purples across the streets while the Eiffel Tower seemed like a beacon of hope and peace. The moment she stepped foot in the wondrous city she never wanted to leave. It was everything she imagined and more. The small cafes that decorated the landscape took her breath away. The smells and sounds enchanted her. But what really made it the best place ever was being there with Himaya. The way the oranges and yellow fell softly on her fuchsia hair was a color combination made in heaven. Her amber eyes reflected the stunning colors of the city and it took all Skylar’s willpower to not stare at them forever.

Skylar couldn’t believe that all of this was even real, being in Paris eating crepes with her girlfriend and everything just being okay. It wasn’t long ago when she thought her life was in shambles and everything was just crumbling down around her. If someone had told her that this was going to happen two years ago she would have laughed at them while her depression grew bigger deep inside her. It was really a dream come true. Everything was going to well that the 3 weeks that they were staying seemed to go by in the blink of an eye. Before she knew it they were packing to head home. She was kind of disappointed since she had loved it here, but she did miss the warm, familiar feel of her own bed. As she began sorting through her shirts, folding them into perfect squares she heard a crash from the kitchen. Completely forgetting the clothes on the floor she jumped to her feet and ran toward the kitchen. She caught herself before she ran in when she saw the pieces of a broken mug on the floor. Looking up she watched as the realization became apparent on Himaya’s face.

“Oh, Skylar don’t come in here. You don’t have any shoes o-” Her sentence was cut short by a yawn. Skylar smiled. Himaya was not the best morning person and it always took her about an hour to be fully awake on a normal day. Today though they had to get up earlier than normal and Himaya was basically sleeping on her feet, the fact that she was swaying just by standing was event of that. She probably meant to hold the cup, or at least pick it and was too out of it to realize her didn’t have a very good grip on it.

“Don’t move babe. You don’t have any shoes on either and you’re too out of it to navigate all this broken ceramic.“ Skylar said as she looked around there hotel room, trying to find her sandals she had haphazardly thrown across the room last night because she was to tired to much of anything else. Spotting them in the corner she quickly retrieved them, pulling them on. Walking across the floor of the kitchen, hearing the crunching the cup under her feet she made her way over to Himaya, who looked like she was struggling to keep her eyes open. Maybe waking up at 5 a.m wasn’t the best idea in hindsight.

Over the summer Skylar had a surprise growth spurt making her only and inch or so shorter than Himaya. This made picking her up much easier. She leaned down and swept Himaya up into her arms, on arm under legs and the other around her back. Any other time Himaya would have made a fuss, she hates being picked up, but right now she was seemed about to fall asleep with her head on Skylar’s shoulder. Next time Skylar will just do the packing since having a half awake Himaya just seems to be dangerous. Walking over to the queen sized bed, she laid the dark skinned woman on top of the covers since they had already made the bed. She was out like a light and Skylar sighed. So much for working together to cut the packing time in half. Making her way back to the various clothes scattered in disarray across the floor she sighed again. This was going to take forever.                                                    __________

   A few hours later, Skylar was in the kitchen making breakfast. She had cleaned up all the broken pieces of the mug but still wore her shoes since she had gotten fully dressed a while ago. Track pants and crop top tank  that said “C’est la vie” across it was what she had chosen for the day for obvious reasons. As she was finishing up making her omelette, Himaya stumbled into the room. The shirt she was wearing was much too big for her and fell off her shoulders. It amused Skylar because Himaya normally wears clothes that make her look more mature. It’s only early in the morning or at night when they are alone that she indulges in her secret love for bagging clothing.

 “Morning babe. How are you feeling this morning?” Setting her breakfast on the table she motioned for Himaya to sit down. Sitting like a heavyweight, Himaya yawned, stretching her arms and popping her joints.

 “I feel like I slept for a thousand years.” Skylar laughed.

 “Well that may be true. You never did fully wake up earlier this morning and you were out cold in a second after you broke your mug.” The look of confusion washed over the older woman’s face,

 “It’s alright, I cleaned up all the pieces and neither of us got hurt so it’s all good.” Skylar said and she waved off any worry. Relief flooded Himaya’s face and Skylar thought it was silly the way she worried so much for the pale skinned girl, yet it was also endearing so she let it slide. 

 After their breakfast they finished the packing that remained, which wasn’t much. Since they had some time before their flight home they decided to visit the shops for some last minute souvenirs. It was surprisingly hot for September so Skylar bought some hair ties and put her hair up in a messy bun. She was thankful that she had a glass eye now instead of bandages that just stick to your skin and collect sweat. It was odd to be able to touch her right side of her face and feel soft skin instead of scratchy bandages but she was getting used to it. The streets were busy with bustling people hurrying to where ever they need to be at. It was nice to just take in the scenery and watch the world go by while you can just take it all in. 

As the end of the day drew near the two girls headed back to their hotel room and grabbed their luggage. The taxi ride to the airport was short, but relaxing. The airport was even busier than it was when they first got here and it was overwhelming. All the noise and people made Skylar wanted to run back the hotel, she was never good in crowds. The people didn’t really scare her, it was more the notion that she could easily get lost or separated with the people she was with.

She linked arms with Himaya so she wouldn’t lose her and they made their way to the terminal. The names of the flights blinked crimson on the blackboard. Skylar scanned the board for their flight. When she found it she saw the word “DELAYED” stamped in bright red letters next to the flight name. Great, nothing like spending hours waiting for a flight. Skylar really wished she was home in her bed now. She turned to Himaya.

“What time is it?”

“7:30” Himaya replied checking her watch. Skylar sighed as she looked back to the board. It said it would be a 4 hour wait. She was not looking forward to waiting 4 hours for a flight.

“Do you wanna grab a bite to eat?” Skylar barely was able to finish her sentence before Himaya was dragging her back out of the airport. If there was one thing she learned while being Himaya is that she is an unstoppable force when it came to food. There were a lot of restaurants near the airport which made finding something to eat quite easy. They settled on going to a little cafe down the street. The menu had so many things on it Skylar could barely keep track of it all. She decided on a ham and cheese sandwich with a glass of lemonade. Himaya ordered a 4 egg white sandwich with fruit and a coffee. The amount of food the woman could eat was amazing.

After getting there food and Himaya complaining about how small the dish looked to her they decided to wander around for a bit since they still had at least 2 hours left. The summer air started to cool which was a wonderful contrast to the unbearable heat before. The sun was setting and it casted everything in warm colors that made Skylar smile. Laying on a grassy hill in a park they found she looked up at the sky watching the clouds roll lazily by. The sounds of children playing could be heard and a warm breezes blew through the trees, sending the first of autumn leaves down. She turned on her side to Himaya who had her eyes closed and a small smile on her face. Seeing her look so serene Skylar realized it shouldn’t be possible to be in love as deeply as she is. It was amazing to love someone so much and for them to return that love. She thanked not for the first time for the mysterious force that looked down on her and gave her someone as wonderful as Himaya. As if feeling eyes on her, Himaya opened her eyes to look back at Skylar.

“What are you looking at?” She asked while smiling. She had perfectly straight teeth and ruby red lips. Skylar would love this woman until the day she dies.

“Just you. I was thinking how lucky I was to have someone as wonderful as you.” She said while scooting closer to her and resting her head on the older woman’s shoulder.

“Ya know flattery will get you nowhere. Expect with me, I can stand to hear more about how wonderful I am.” Skylar batted at her side while the dark woman laughed.

“You are impossible. One compliment and suddenly you think you are all high and mighty.” She said, but she was laughing as well. She loved it when she was able to make Himaya laugh, it was something she strived for every day. Her laugh was contagious and best sound that she has ever heard.

                                            __________________

By the time they made it back to the airport it was almost 9:15. Even though it was still relatively early all Skylar wanted to do was sleep in her bed. As they walked through the giant doors of the airport it was much less crowded than it was before much to Skylar’s relief. Just a handful of people were making their way across the room on their way to a gate or a restaurant that was built into the airport. Skylar realized they could have just eaten at the airport but with all the people there before she didn’t even know it was there. Getting to the terminal was much easier this time and they both watched the board for their flight to come up. When it finally did the word “CANCELED” was stamped next to the flight and honestly Skylar was too tired to get angry although that did not stop Himaya from running up the desk woman and demanding the reason behind the cancellation of the flight. Again if Skylar wasn’t so tired she would have felt sorry of the woman who looked terrified under the constant barrage of Himaya’s wrath.

It took a good amount of time and a lot of promises of her favorite foods and a movie night to finally get Himaya to leave the airport. Hailing a taxi and finding a hotel to stay at took much longer than Skylar thought was necessary and by the time they finally made it to their room of the fourth hotel they tried to stay at she just collapsed onto the bed.

“Ugh, wake me up when the world ends.” She said her voice muffled by the pillows on the bed. She could hear the sound of Himaya moving around behind her and she turned her head to breathe and to watch what the other woman was doing. Said other woman was opening all the suitcases and digging through them. Skylar sat up so fast she thought she might have given herself whiplash.

“Himaya why are you throwing the clothes all around, I spent hours packing all that stuff.” She whined as her girlfriend made  a ‘aha’ sound and pulled out their case of DVDs.

“You promised a movie night tonight babe.” She said as she went about picking out movie and popping them into the machine. Skylar through her head back onto the pillows, she was so tired and honestly the promise was just to get Himaya to leave the poor woman alone. She had hope she would have forgotten about it by the time they had gotten to the hotel but she guessed she was wrong. Himaya had found the kitchen and started to make to snacks for the movies. Getting up Skylar got changed into her sleep clothes and gave it to the fact that they would be watching a movie. She grabbed the comforter off the bed and sat down on the floor with it wrapped around her. She wasn’t sure what movie Himaya had picked, but she could always ask her when she came back. The blanket was warm and she found herself dozing off. The sound of the movie starting scared her awake though. Apparently whoever was using this room before them had forgotten to turn down the volume on the T.V. and it was so loud it hurt Skylar’s ears. Himaya was quick to bring the volume down though and the sudden change in volume left Skylar’s ears ringing.

“What a way to start a movie.” Himaya said while looking at Skylar’s confused and disgruntled face. The way she looked was so similar to a cat that had just been scared by a sneeze made Himaya laugh. Skylar glaring at her just made it funnier and she ended laughing so hard she was wheezing and wiping tears from her eyes. Skylar just pouted, she didn’t think it was that funny.

“I-I-m s-sorry!” Himaya said through the fits of laughter, “It’s just the look on your face was priceless.” Finally calming down Himaya nudged Skylar who was still pouting. “Come on. I know you can’t stay mad at me forever.” Skylar refused to let up and she opened her mouth to tell off the older woman when Himaya leaned in to kiss her, forcing her tongue into her open mouth and the shock was the only thing keeping Skylar from kissing back. By the time she came to her senses Himaya’s lips were gone and she was staring at her with a smile.

“Fine, I forgive you.” Skylar said after some reluctance.

“I knew you would.” Himaya hummed and they finally settled down to watch the movie. Skylar wasn’t sure what was happening on the screen because halfway through the film she began to fall asleep again. The warmth of the blanket and leaning against Himaya was too much for her and before long she was fast asleep.

                                                                   ____________

   The blinding sun was what eventually woke Skylar. She really regretted not closing the blinds the night before. Begrudgingly getting up, she had to untangle herself from her girlfriend who was still fast asleep, she must have carried her back to the bed after she fell asleep. The comforter and the other woman sleeping on top of her was making uncomfortably hot. She hoped their flight was on schedule today and they didn’t have to wait any longer. Making her way to the bathroom she stripped down to take a shower. The cool water felt so good on her overly hot skin. She just enjoyed it for awhile.

About half an hour later she was back to repacking the bags while her girlfriend continued to sleep. Sometimes the dark skinned woman was useless. Shaking her head she stood up and walked over to the sleeping figure and grabbed her by the shoulders to shake her awake. The sudden actions cause amber eyes snapped open in surprise and Skylar had to suppress a laugh at the reaction.

“Time to wake up babe.” She said while finishing up the last of the packing. Behind she could hear Himaya grumbling about being woken up so early even though it was almost 10 am. She went into the kitchen and made herself some coffee while she waited for her girlfriend to get dressed. She looked at her watch and checked the scheduled time for the flight. They had enough time to make to the airport if they left in the next five minutes.

“Come on, Himaya! We need to leave soon.” The only response she got was grumbling and huffing as she walked back into the front room. Skylar just shook her head in amusement as she watched her girlfriend pull on her shoes.