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See, I came down, dressed to impress, my fairly atypical winter cloak fastened around my clothes, expecting to see the usual drabbly yet elegantly dressed vampire awaiting me on her favorite three-seater couch.

Needless to say, that’s not what happened.

Upon seeing me, she stood up, patient anticipation in her every step striding toward me, and the closer she got, the more I was left reeling seeing what I was seeing, my awe, my smile growing bigger and bigger.

“Terestra’s… magic…” Adalia said, making her own astute observations. “You are… wearing it…”

“Never mind me,” I said, breathless. “You, on the other hand. Where did you…? How did you…?”

“I decided… to change my dress… for today…” She whispered, stating the profound, breathtaking obvious. “I want you… to be surprised…”

Adalia looked… flowery. That’s the only accurate way I could narrow it down—flowery, flamboyantly—there was nothing about her that used to look like her.

She was absolutely flushing with vibrancy, the contrast of colors enveloping her in her entirety. A frilly blouse had draped her usual gray figure in the deepest shade of blue, and hovering just over her knees was pleated and patterned in the same blend of color as her eyes and hair.

.....

It was like somebody had turned on the switch to a long-dimmed attic, or a sunrise slowly dawning on the darkest of nights. That’s how she looked, that’s how she felt.

And this was to surprise me?

Well, mission accomplished.

“I hope… you would like it…” She said, lifting up her pale sleeveless arms as if assessing herself. “Do you like… it…?”

One thing. Only one thing kept cropping back up to the forefront of my thoughts, and I knew it was just going to keep bothering me until I finally vent it out.

“You look stunning…” I said at first, then the urge got the best of me. “But you also… kind of look like Amanda.”

It was like a split-second after I made the remark, that I realized that perhaps comparing her looks to a completely different person wasn’t exactly the best way to compliment a woman.

Why does clarity like this only come right after making the mistake? I see a blazing fire, I don’t realize it’s only hot after deliberately throwing myself into the flames? So why did I decide to scorch myself here?

Luckily, Adalia, in her infinite leniency and mercy, somehow decided for herself that my fuckup was apparently the best praise she could have ever hoped for.

“I… borrowed…” Adalia explained. “Amanda said… I could… if I wanted… to…”

“Oh, huh…” I blinked. Now I know at least she didn;t go off and rob a store for them. “Why, though? Not that I disapprove, in fact, you look lovely. Just beauty overload. But your usual dress would have done just fine for the occasion, right?”

“Because… I wanted to…”

I frowned. “You wanted to look like Amanda?”

“I wanted to… look different…” she said. “...to look… normal…” her voice ringing so empty and yet so full. “...for you…”

This time clarity hit me at the right moment. Not a word left me about how she didn’t need to do this. I didn’t dare detract from her efforts, this gesture, with something like that. Who cares if she wasn’t appropriately dressed for the season. She did it for me, and really, that’s all that mattered.

“Alright,” I said, my gratitude in my smile, my fingers grazing my affection across her left cheek. “Shall we go, then?”

For once, surprisingly, there was not a spot of snow to be seen… not anywhere in the skies at least. The heaven above offered a clear open view of stagnant gray clouds, almost as if the blistering cold had frozen them solid in place.

Which works well for us. Perfect weather always precedes a perfect date, as foretold by the old saying I just completely made up on the spot.

This date was going to be perfect.

Like Sera, and also much like Ash before her, it was now Adalia’s turn to be closely acquainted with the roarings and rumblings of the more rowdy side to modern transportation.

Now cars, and buses, she did fine with both. Bikes on the other hand….

Frankly, I suspected she’d be the most averse to it, but after assuring her that all she had to do was huddle close to me and hold on tight, it quickly became smooth sailing from there onward. No surprises there, ’cause if nothing else, Adalia was a pretty good hugger.

And so off, off, and away we were.

Fleetingly, I managed to glimpsed the distinct figure of Ash by the porch, Mr. Black swishing through her ankles… seeing us off, waving us farewell… even at a distance, her loving smile still so apparent. Perhaps if I looked a little closer, I might have seen Sera lurking behind her by the doorway too.

I relished it, letting the sight linger for a longer moment even as it immediately vanished in a speeding blur of other houses and snow-powdered shrubbery… because I knew it was going to be the last time I’m ever gonna willingly think of anyone else for a long while.

Right now, Adalia was all that mattered to me. So many things to do, and a seemingly unending surplus of time to do it. A date with Adalia could mean pretty much anything.

My plan? Head to town, walk around, find anything and everything so long as it was something. It’s what she wanted, after all… a normal date, a normal Christmas with me…

Oh, and I just… there I go again… completely forgetting…

“I didn’t get you a Christmas present yet,” I said, pulling up on a red light, my own words bouncing inside my helmet. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about it.”

“No… nothing…” She whispered immediately. “This… is… my present… already…”

Saw her answer coming from a million miles away. As selfless as she was adorable, this girl. She really doesn’t ask for anything, does she?

“The best thing about getting gifts, right… is that you’re not limited to just one,” I simply said back, tilting back slightly to look at her. “So what will it be, Adalia?”

“No…thing…”

“Wrong answer.”

“Then… I don’t… know…”

“Well, no rush, take your time,” I said, whirling back around to the glow of a green light. “You got the whole day ahead to figure it out.”

“I…”

The rest of her words were promptly drowned out by the speed of sound. More protest, more reluctance, most likely. I wasn’t gonna hear it. One way or another, she was getting something from me.

It was after more red lights, and a change of scenery to the concrete walls of the city, before I heard the same faint whisper yet again.

“I… did not get you… anything too…” Adalia said. “Amanda… told me… that I should…”

“Did she now?”

“She also… told me… that… I did not… have to…”

Okay, where and when was she meeting Amanda for this aid on fashion and dating advice? Was this the ‘somewhere’ she was wandering away to all this time?

“Well, as it always is with that woman, she’s right on the money,” I said. “You don’t have to get me anything.”

I wasn’t deaf to the utter hypocrisy that I was spewing right here, and needless to say, neither was Adalia.

“That is not… fair…” She said, in the corner of my eyes, her brows ever so slightly furrowing. “...not fair… at all…”

“I’m aware.”

“If I can’t give you… any…thing…” She proclaimed slowly, adorably defiantly. “Then I… don’t want… anything…”

Actually, know what? Now, there’s an idea.

I shifted my head back toward her, her blank expression tinted a gloomier surlier by my visor. “Alright, we’ll make a deal.”

“A… deal…?”

“If I tell you what I want as a gift, then you’ll have to tell me what you want too. Fair? Sounds fair?”

“You mean… you will… let me give you… something…?”

“If I can also get you something, yes.”

Suddenly, the surliness about her vanished. Apparently, my visor had nothing to do with that.

“Okay…” She nodded. “Tell… me…”

“Afraid I can’t,” I said, flashing her an apologetic smile that she couldn’t see. “Because I’ve no idea what I want as a gift either.”

Then before she could say anything else, I hit the throttle and off we were speeding down the road again. The whipping whistling of wind filling the silence between.

My idea went from a very good idea, to a potentially good one. This is what I get for nothing thinking things all the way. So many things, so many options, asking anything for her… spoiled for a choice here while simultaneously not wanting to choose either.

What a dilemma

Sure, I could be frivolous, could simply ask for a peck on the cheek, a lap pillow to lie on, or an embrace to keep warm/cold, but I think she’d just see right through it. Like me, unbearably like me, I’m sure whatever it is she was to get, it had to be sincerely special.

Won’t have it any other way.

And that’s okay.

I got the whole day to think about it, after all.