Rising Shards

I woke up back in our room, received some very stern words from one of the night guards, and some downright terrifying words from Naomi Ratuna about what would happen if we ever tampered with the windows again, we decided we weren’t going to try and sneak out any more, even if the Feral Flu part of us really wanted to.

“I wasn’t expecting them to catch us that quickly,” Oka said.

“I wasn’t expecting darts with the sleepy stuff,” I said and yawned. “I’m still sleepy.”

“And I’m still bored despite two Feral Flu tranquilizers,” Oka said.

“Have you sat in my bed?” I said. “We could swap, and then we could say we’ve sat in all the beds in our room!”

“We’re bringing the riveting ideas now.” Oka said.

“Here, you take my bed and I take yours.” I said. “I mean, what else are we going to do? We have Feral Flu and just got like tranq darted for trying to escape! The beach air was so nice, at least.”

“We could watch something?” Oka said. “Instead of switching beds, how about you just come over to mine?”

“Come over to yours?” I said, my voice growing a bit weaker as I finished the sentence.

“Let’s make it more fun, like we should celebrate this night, when are we gonna have another like this?” Oka said. She got out a blanket and made a curtain around her bed. “Gimme one of your blankets, I want it to go all around.”

We worked on turning Oka’s bed into a little fort.

“Pillows, check. Blanket curtains, check. Enough blankets inside, check.” Oka said. “We’re in pajamas, also check.”

“Are you really sure you want me—" I said.

“No hesitation,” Oka said. “Get in here with me.”

Oka and I climbed into her bed and curled up together in one of the non-curtain blankets. My face felt immediately warm, so I got out my phone and tried to find an optimal position for us both to see the screen. Oka fortunately didn’t comment on how much my hands were shaking. We were just shoulder to shoulder at least, that wasn’t anything new for us. But maybe because of the night it felt like it was.

“Feral Flu movie night!” Oka said. “What’s a good movie?”

“You pick.” I said.

“I just know old musicals!” Oka said.

“I haven’t seen many old musicals,” I said. “Pick one you like.”

“Fine…do any of your sites have one called Meadows of the Glass Marsh?”

“Let me check…” I said, searching what streaming sites the movie was on. “Hey it’s on one I’m subscribed to!”

“Alright, it’s pretty old, just warning you now,” Oka said. Her voice got a bit quieter as I found the movie and loaded it up. “Promise you won’t laugh.”

“We’re curled up like this, the only laughing I’m gonna do is with you, not at your movie.”

“Thank you.” Oka said.

Feeling a bit bold, I nuzzled a bit closer to Oka right as the movie started. I was too embarrassed to look at her reaction. We were both comfy and worn out from everything (mainly the two tranq darts, those did a number on our energy), so we stayed close and quietly enjoyed the movie until we fell asleep.