“Oh, look! This place sure brings back memories.” Yessica suddenly stopped as they were walking through town. “See? You came here before, didn’t you?”
“Yeah,” replied Blade as he looked. It was the Parlor, the little food place on the street. He recalled stopping here while on a date with Sophie. But if Yessica said it brought back “memories,” that would imply she had been there, too…
“Wanna have a drink?”
“No, I’m fine—”
Blade stopped himself, recalling what Yessica had told him about being considerate while on a date.
“Are you thirsty, Yessica?”
“A little.”
“Let’s get something to drink, then. That’s the obvious choice.”
Krrrk…
The metal streetlight was now dented in the shape of a curled finger.
“Whoa, Sophie. Calm down. Calm down, okay?”
“I am calm.”
“You dented it. You dented it. You just twisted up a streetlight. Just what the heck is your grip strength?”
Earnest wasn’t sure whether to laugh or sigh in despair. Now it was Sophie losing her temper. She had been watching quietly so far, but when the two of them ordered juice, it set something off in her.
Earnest knew this place. It was the Parlor where Sophie and Blade went on a date and drank juice offerings with embarrassing names like “Lovely Infinite” whatever.
“Hey, Sophie?”
“What?”
“If Blade’s happy, isn’t that good enough?”
“If Blade is happy, that is all I need.”
“Then why did you crumple up that streetlight?”
“If Blade is happy, that is all I need.”
It wasn’t really an answer, but Earnest understood her well enough. Sophie kept a generally indifferent attitude around Blade—almost frighteningly so, at times. But as Earnest now saw, she wasn’t so different from the rest of them. She began to feel a sense of kinship with the girl.
See, Sophie? You’re just barely holding it back, too.
The Lovely Infinite Tropical—a large glass of juice with two straws—was in front of Blade once more.
“Did you know this is meant for couples?”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Do you know what the term ‘couple’ means?”
“Sure. It’s a man and a woman in a group. Just like me and you, Yessica. We’re a couple now.”
Blade pointed first at his chest, then as Yessica’s.
“Aww… That’s so cute of you, Blade. Okay, um…so did you know this drink’s meant not just for couples, but for couples who’re in love?”
“Huh?” He hadn’t known that. “Well…I don’t really understand ‘love,’ so…”
“Ooh. Time for a little discussion about love, huh?”
“Well, love is…um, it’s the same thing as liking something a lot, isn’t it?”
“It’s close to that. In terms of being the kind of ‘like’ that isn’t ‘liking’ a friend, you pretty much have it right.”
Okay. He had it correct so far. “So basically, it’s like mating or something like that?”
His doctor often engaged in those kinds of activities. Courtship rituals. And if courting was asking someone to mate, then that meant love must be at least pretty close to mating.
“Well, um, no, that’s not quite what I meant. That’s being a little too blunt.”
“Oh, it’s different?”
“No, I mean… It’s close, but not quite.”
“Which is it?”
Blade looked around the street. There were a lot of couples. It was Sunday afternoon, and around a quarter of the people walking past them were male-female pairs—in other words, couples.
Blade pointed to one of the pairs. “What about them? Are they a couple in love?”
“Not yet.”
“Not yet?”
That sounded vague to him. “Yet”? What does “yet” mean, exactly?
“So what about that one?” he asked, pointing again.
“Yeah, they’re doing it.”
This time, the answer was clear. Wow. A couple who’s already mated! What a discovery!
“And that one?”
“Doing it. Like, dozens of times. I mean, they’re married, so it’s natural.”
“Dozens of times!”
That’s amazing! Wow! They’ve probably done a lifetime’s worth of mating!
“But why are you quizzing me about how many times random couples have done it? Is this a quiz, or am I a sex sommelier, or what?”
“Huh? Oh. It’s just fun, is all.”
“Hey, Blade…do you want to, like, mate with me, maybe?” Yessica propped her head up with an arm against the table, put her little finger in her mouth, and asked the question point-blank.
“…Hmmm?”
Blade folded his arms, thinking it over. It felt like a pretty tough question.
“Hey, what’re they talking about?”
Now it was Earnest on edge. Among them, only Sophie and Iona had the secret-agent skills and/or high-spec machinery to hear the couple’s conversation from this far away.
Both of them were doing just that right now, but they seemed surprisingly calm. Sophie was muttering a spell under her breath along the lines of “if Blade is happy, that is all I need…if Blade is happy, that is all I need…if Blade is happy, that is all I need,” over and over again, but otherwise, she seemed fine.
“Hey, so what’re they saying? Tell me! You have to tell me! I have a right to know, don’t I?”
“You’d better not listen.”
“Why not?!”
“You should stay back. You couldn’t handle it.”
“Ughhh!”