you're my best friend :: aran

"I can do it!" Amerie protested, continuing to paddle her way along. But she was getting pretty tired.

She went a few more feet and then finally flipped to her back. "Okay, this is harder than I thought," she admitted. But floating on her back was easier, just as Aran had said. It was just hard to see because the sun was so bright. Amerie shut her eyes and just kinda swam, hoping she was going in a straight line.

Aran tread slowly next to Amerie, watching her slowly drift along on her back with her eyes closed. Gahhhhh why did Aran have to be so attracted to her. It just wasn't fair. Amerie was too fucking cute and attractive for her own damn good.

"You're gonna hit your head," she said, grabbed Amerie's arm to stop her as they reached the break wall.

"Oops!" Amerie said, flipping over when Aran stopped her from bonkin' her head. She scrambled up onto the rocks and sat down, her feet dangling into the water.

"Just wanna...take a minute," she said breathlessly. That had taken a lot more out of her than she thought it would. She still wanted to walk up and down the rocks, but maybe they could just sit here for awhile and watch the waves.

"Maybe 'stead of target practice, we should work on your endurance tomorrow," Aran said, half-teasingly and half-seriously. She pulled herself up onto the rocks, not winded in the slightest. Gamma climbed up as well. Aran and Amerie sat together with their daemons, looking out over the water.

This is romantic, Gamma said cheekily. Aran shoved her back into the water.

Amerie sighed. Endurance training sounded long and boring. "Okay," she said to Aran, even though she didn't really want to. But Aran always had a way of knowing what was best to do, so she would do it. She'd probably end up liking it eventually, anyway.

She leaned back on one of the bigger rocks that was behind her. "It's actually not so hot out here now that the breeze is coming off the lake," Amerie said. "It's really nice." She watched the little clio on the beach running around or laying on little colorful towels. If it wouldn't have gotten wet, they should have brought their lunches out here. Instead it was all that way away, back on the sand.

"I'm glad we came here," she said, turning and smiling at Aran. They hadn't gotten to do a lot together, lately. "I missed you."

Aran turned to look at Amerie, only to be greeted by Amerie's pretty, smiling face looking right back at her. It was like she was just fucking waiting for Aran to lean in and kiss her. But no. She wasn't, really, Aran knew that. It was just. So. Tempting.

She looked away, kinda embarrassed. "Whattaya mean, you miss me?" she asked. "I live in your house."

Sure, since Amerie was--ugh--dating Luka now, they did see a little less of each other. But c'mon, there was no way Amerie was ever thinking about or missing Aran when she was out with her sorta-boyfriend. No way.

Was she?

"Well I know that, silly," Amerie said, rolling her eyes with a smile. "But I guess I just haven't had as much time to just hang out with you." Lately all they had time for was training, and not just talking like they used to.

Maybe sometime she could go out with her and Luka when they went out to do something. That would be nice. It wasn't the same when she was just out with Luka--he wasn't her best friend.

"Well...yeah, I figured you'd, y'know, wanna spend some time alone with Luka," Aran said coyly. Although she liked Luka now, she really didn't want to hang out with the two of them together because it made her feel like such a third wheel, on top of the whole jealousy thing. Separately she was fine with them, but the two of them together made her want to punch things.

"I spend a lot of time with him," Amerie said. "But I wanna spend time with you too..." Now she felt kinda bad. "I'm sorry. It's just easy to spend time with him since he's always in my office."

Once she'd hired an adviser Aran had stopped visiting her in her office. "You should come visit me there sometime if you're bored."

"Oh! We should go to the fair! You n me! Tomorrow!" Luka was going to be visiting his family, so Amerie would have the whole day to spend with Aran.

Amerie wrote:"You should come visit me there sometime if you're bored."

"Mm. Yeah, maybe," Aran said noncommittally. What was she going to do there? Sit while Amerie and Luka did all the important stuff and occasionally said couple-y things to each other? Yeah, no.

Amerie wrote:"Oh! We should go to the fair! You n me! Tomorrow!"

"Oh. I've, uh, never been to the fair before," Aran said. It sounded like it could be fun.

It sounds like a date, Gamma said.

I'll push you again, Aran warned.

"Never?!" Amerie asked incredulously. Not that Amerie had been many times, herself, but her dad would always take her once a year on her birthday as a treat. It was her favorite day of the year. One of the few times she got to act like a kid.

"That settles it!" Amerie cried. "We are going! If we weren't already here we would go today!" How could Aran have never been to the taffy carnival? "You've never ridden any rides? Have you had cotton candy?!"

Aran blinked, totally caught off guard by Amerie's outburst. What was the big deal about a fucking carnival? "No," she said slowly to her cotton candy question, wondering if Amerie was going to freak out about that too. "Never ridden rides or had cotton candy or any of that stuff." Going to the carnival hadn't exactly been high on her priorities as a child.

Aran had never had cotton candy. Amerie felt like she was going to explode. "We will get some of every kind!" she declared. "Pink, blue, yellow..." she listed off the colors with enthusiasm, "but lots of blue 'cuz it's the best." Oh! They were going to have so much fun.

"And we are gonna ride the Ferris wheel and the spinning ride that makes me want to puke, and we can eat french fries and it's just going to be the most fun ever."

Amerie had never gone to the fair without her dad, who made her do everything in moderation. This year she was going to do it all. As much as she wanted. And Aran was gonna be there right with her.

Aran didn't even know there were cotton candies that weren't pink, let alone that different colors would even taste different. It sounded to her like Amerie was gonna end up puking up all different colors all over the carnival if she did all the stuff she said she wanted to do.

"Do they have games there?" she asked curiously. She'd always heard you could play games and win prizes like big stuffed animals and fish, for whatever reason anyone would want either one of those things.

You just wanna win stuff for Amerie, Gamma teased. Aran resisted pushing her off the break wall a second time, but only because Amerie might find it suspicious.

"Sooo many games," Amerie said. She couldn't stop smiling. Tomorrow was going to be so awesome! "One time I won a fish but my dad wouldn't let me take him home." He'd said fish were smelly or something, and Amerie had given it away to a little boy who hadn't won. But she still wished she would have gotten to keep him. "But there is just so much to do it's the happiest place in all of Amelia."

Amerie tried to stand up but stumbled a little bit in her excitement. "Let's walk down the rocks!" she said. She was suddenly hyper and needed to move. Tomorrow they were going to the fair and today she got to walk in the middle of the lake. How awesome was this?

Aran wasn't sure she'd ever seen Amerie so excited for something before. It was cute but it also kind of made her want to laugh.

"Careful!" Aran exclaimed when Amerie stumbled getting up. "You're gonna fall n' crack your head open n' drown, and I'll be the worst bodyguard who ever lived." She stood up and followed Amerie, staying close in case she had to catch her or something.

Amerie forgot a lot of the time that she had initially hired Aran on as a bodyguard. She was just her best friend now, who was also really good at her eilemaiden and helped her out.

She smiled at Aran. "I'm not gonna fall. I just got up too fast!" She continued walking down the rocky path, tripping every now and then. Okay, so she wasn't the most coordinated clio. As she walked she slipped, but caught herself on Aran's shoulder.

"Ugh, sorry," she told her, steadying herself. The rocks were actually really slippery against Amerie's bare feet. It was hard to walk on.

Aran instinctively put her arm around Amerie's waist to steady her when she nearly fell, even though Amerie had managed to catch herself on Aran's shoulder. "You okay?" she asked, looking down at Amerie and not moving from their position. She knew Amerie was fine, but she didn't want to let her go right away. Amerie was looking back up at her. Aran started to lean down slightly...

FUCK. No. No. Stop. Fucking hell, don't do this.

She let go of Amerie and pulled back away. That was fucking close. What the actual fuck was wrong with her right now.

Amerie saw that intense look in Aran's eyes but mistook it for worry. She was about to assure her that she was okay when Aran suddenly jerked away.

"Are you okay?" Amerie asked, confused. Had Aran tripped, too?

"Yep. Yeah. Sure am," Aran said unconvincingly, turning away so that Amerie wouldn't see her flushed face. She rubbed her face with her hand, wondering why she did this sort of thing to herself. First Laurel, now Amerie. Straight girls shouldn't be allowed to be so sweet and attractive.

"Um, okay," Amerie said, her voice still sounding confused. Aran never lost her composure. What was going on?

The two walked for a little ways in silence, Amerie leading Aran down the rocky ledge. She was careful not to trip again, so she picked her way very cautiously. After a while of Aran not talking, Amerie was actually getting sorta worried. "Are you sure you're okay?" she asked, climbing around a stone that stuck out in a sharp angle.

Aran sighed. "Don't worry about me," she told Amerie. She followed her down the rocky path. "I'm just...thinking about somethin', is all."

Ugh. Maybe she should just say fuck it and tell Amerie the truth. Get it all out in the open, so that Amerie could reject her properly and she could move on. But then things'd be all awkward, and it might even make Amerie uncomfortable. It could fuck up their friendship, something that Aran would not want to risk. Fuuuuuuuuuuuck.

Something was definitely wrong. "Well... if ya wanna talk about it, you can," she said. Aran always listened to her when she was sad or complaining, but Aran didn't talk about herself a lot. Amerie hoped she knew she could. She had to know.

"I'm getting tired," Amerie said after a while. They'd climbed along the wall for a long time now in the hot sun. Even though she had put sun lotion on, Amerie felt her face starting to get warm with sunburn. Her shoulders were getting prickly too.

"Let's head back then," Aran said. The two of them climbed down and lowered themselves back into the water to begin the swim back.

"Uh, hey, Amerie," she spoke up after a moment of silence. "I was wondering if I could ask you somethin'. Some advice."

"Advice?" Amerie asked. She was swimming backwards, floating on her back like Aran had suggested earlier. It was a lot easier this way.

When had Aran ever asked her for advice? It was usually the other way around.