Daina had grown up here just a stone's throw or so away from the mountains, and yet even so, sometimes the Summer hit a bit hot or maybe that's the trek out to the lake that Alfred had shown her years ago. She'd always admired him; he's only about three years older than her, and she'd dreamed for a long time of being somewhat like him, because he always seems so free.
He's outdoorsy in the ways that she lacks, as Daina had always grown up with a love of literature, a love of reading, the decisions she made most Summer days were often decisions to grab one of her favorite books or a new, soon to be favorite book and read the hours away. Within a book, there were so many possibilities to chase down, so much to imagine, and in real life, most of the things were things she really didn't want to do or things she couldn't do.
So, Daina let her imagination grow, let it flourish on wings otherwise unknown. But Alfred, he'd always been the rough and tumble kid, the one outside that sometimes got into trouble, but was having fun the whole time. He didn't break any laws, and he wasn't a bad kid, just sometimes he was a little too adventurous or so everyone worried about him.
She'd introduced herself at two to the then five year old with a special sparkle in her eye, because he was such a pro at his tricycle, and she was still learning, and he seemed like fun. It hadn't taken long for admiration to seep into affection, and now, she doesn't even know when she fell.
It could have been just months after meeting him, or maybe years later when teenage hood crossed her mind, but either way, Alfred had been her only real crush in all that time. Other crushes came and went with no perseverance, and she found time didn't lessen her crush on her best friend at all.
When she was barely ten, he'd first taken her out to the lake, and they'd decided spontaneously to swim, because the walk to get there was long. And her parents had only longed at her kind of funny, when she'd made it back home with clothes that felt like cardboard and stuck to her skin. They'd shaken their heads, but they knew she'd wandered off with Alfred, and they hadn't known what else to really expect.
And of course, there was the one Summer day that they'd gotten lost on their way to the lake and traipsed through forest path after forest path and had not even made it back to the lake, instead they'd wandered back home, defeated, and Alfred for once let Daina lead. She'd remembered some of the way that they'd taken to get so lost, so finding their way out was okay.
And with Alfred getting lost wasn't so humiliating, as the whole way home they'd told joke sand laughed, as if they'd had all the fun in the world wandering the forest that day, lost but happy. But Alfred did naturally light up a room, make it not quite as dull or as dark as it was before; good times shone even brighter around Alfred than they did any other time.
"Why's your hair braided today?" Alfred asked, as if questioning everything about her very casual get up.
"It's less hot this way." Daina admits, naturally though almost shyly, "Long hair can be hot on your shoulders and back and neck. So, we braided it back."
"Ah, that makes sense." Alfred looks at the trees around them as if reminding himself of the path they're on.
"You wouldn't want to get lost again." Daina teases, barely holding back the laugh that is on her tongue.
"You got lost that day too, Daina!" Alfred chides, playfully, nudging her side, "You know you did."
"If you say so." Daina couldn't help her amused smile that probably told Alfred that she wasn't reprimanding him, really, "But who was the leader on the way back, that held little Alfred's hand?"
"Oh, so you're the older one out of the two of us?" Alfred stuck his tongue out at her, and as Daina laughed, she really did think that for a moment her best friend actually looked younger than her.
"Of course." Daina couldn't stop her laughter, "I read way more than you do!"
"Says the writer who is practically glued to her books." Alfred grumbles, but it's all in jest.
"Someone has to be the smart one." Daina declares with a big smile, feeling so much younger, just the way that Alfred reminds her to loosen up a little and just be.
"And someone has to be the risk taker." Alfred declares, equally as strongly, though he nudges her a little harder then, not enough to knock Daina off her feet however.
"I guess so." Daina laughs, "Someone has to make the stories we tell for years after."
"But you're the one who writes them down!" Alfred declares.
"You tell them to everyone we meet though." Daina nudges him back.
Alfred laughs, grinning over at her. "I do, but you make them sound so much better."
"Why, thank you, good sir!" Daina half bows, playfully.
"No one can say it better than you can." Alfred states, instead of an 'You're welcome,' and Daina merely smiles at her best friend.
And as she looks up, it already seems as if they are halfway there.
"But no one's as funny as you are." Daina decides in that moment to tell him. It's true; Alfred can make her laugh like no one else can, and it's always a delight to hear Alfred tell their old stories like they'd only just happened or like there was something extra special about them.
The special parts of the stories to Daina are just the two of them, their friendship, her secret crush, all of it. It brings life to the memories and a different spin on it than anything else does.
Alfred just shakes his head in reply, brushing off the compliment.
"Can you believe it's been so long?" Alfred comments.
"Are you tired that fast?" Daina jokes, though the heat despite her braided hair is starting to seep into her clothes.
"No, you, doofus." Alfred chuckles, no barb behind the playful insult, "Since we first came out here together."
"It has been a long time." Daina smiles, "A decade or so of memories."
"Yeah." Alfred agrees, "You're the coolest person I've ever walked here with."
"You mean, you've been cheating on me with other friends?" It slips out without Daina really thinking about it, but it's playful none the less.
"Not often, no." Alfred admits, "I've taken some of the dudes out here before, but they aren't as fun to talk to."
"Don't let me tell them that." Daina argues, laughing, "They'll never forgive me."
"They know there is no competition." Alfred grins, "I gave you the best friend hat years ago."
"It didn't arrive. It must have got lost in transit." Daina jokes, picturing some purple monstrosity of a hat trying to make it in the mail just a few houses down. It probably wouldn't have fit that well in the envelope, she can picture Alfred stuffing it into with great force.
"You," Alfred teases, laughing, "Maybe I didn't hit checkout then?" He suggests, playfully.
"You and technology!" Daina jokes, half-chidingly, no bite to the words. Alfred was a quicker typer than she was, she was pretty sure. Or at least in direct conversations with people; Daina was much faster with a word document open. Alfred had a habit of hitting his lip with a pen as he stared at blank documents, waiting for them to write themselves.
He'd always been terribly slow at essays and story writing didn't come easily to him at all either. Daina had no idea how, because Alfred could tell a story, and you'd listen to it for hours without growing even the least bit bored. And she was positive that that was more than her crush and their friendship talking.
"I'm a quick typer." Alfred declares, proudly, but the amused pull of his lips, reveals that he's barely containing even more laughter behind them.
"So, you say, nerd boy!" She jokes, remembering how when they were teenagers Alfred had first gotten into reading comics. He'd found them out in the city, in a little comic book shop, and he'd bring them home and read them, though he'd hide them from prying eyes as if they were drug memorabilia, and Daina had no idea how that was still such a charming image for her.
Alfred hiding his comics; he didn't tell her he was reading them until two years after he'd began, and he'd made her promise not to tell anyone. An athlete reading comics was not the crime that Alfred had believed it was back then.
Alfred rolled his eyes, "Everyone loves a good superhero."
"Or a supervillain." Daina teased with a grin, remembering countless hours of conversations where they dissected everything there was to know about their favorite villains. Those were good albeit lengthy conversations where they'd sit on Alfred's bed and talk for hours.
"You got me." Alfred laughed, "The hero has a thing for villains."
"I hope not." Daina teased, smiling in an attempt to hide her laughter.
"Yeah, writers are cuter than their creations." Alfred joked, and despite the teasing nature of it all, Daina's face bloomed so bright red, that she could nearly blend in with the red roses at the flower shop.
Alfred merely winked with a cheeky grin, and Daina had no idea how even into their twenties, Alfred could completely undo her composure with just a few words and a wink. Honestly, she feels so smitten that sometimes she wonders if she is secretly still twelve, even though she well knows that she's past that awkward phase.
By the time, they do make it to the lake, a little over a half an hour since they'd first set out, they are both sweating, with the sun beaming down on them as if determined to leave two adults completely worn out on their relatively short journey. It always feels like a hike to make it out here, even as kids, it had felt difficult but had been completely rewarding then too.
One thing, Daina didn't like is the way it feels to swim with braided or ponytailed hair brushing against her. It didn't matter how useful said ponytail or braid was. Even if it did nicely keep her hair out of her face whenever she was surfacing again. She reached up to slowly sift the braid through her fingers, having just pulled the ponytail out.
"Oh!" And suddenly, Alfred is behind her running his fingers carefully through her hair and pulling out the braid with seeming ease. It's so sweet of him and so disarmingly domestic too.
"Alfred?" Daina supplied, wondering what had caught her best friend's attention so much.
"I've never seen you swim with braided hair." Alfred admits, off handedly, "I mean, I'm sorry, but you were pulling out the braid, and it's probably just easier if I do it for you."
Daina smiled, despite her pretty pink blush, "It's fine. I was just a little surprised."
What's more surprising, but also surprisingly gentle is how Alfred runs his fingers through her hair as if still easing the braid out out of her waves. It's so gentle, that Daina could simply relax, close her eyes, and lean against him.
"There!" Alfred declares, stepping back, and when Daina turns around to thank him, she realizes that he'd been pretty quick at getting out of his outer layer. He only was wearing his swim trunks. His slip on shoes are off to the side where he'd been standing beforehand, and his t-shirt is casually tossed over them, as easily as if it had only just happened.
"Thank you!" And maybe it was the gentleness in which Alfred handled her hair or maybe she really is a teenager all over again, because Daina can't help how she blushes as she looks at her shirtless friend.
"No problem!" Alfred's already heading to the lake with a large grin on his face, ready to go swimming.
Daina tucks her ponytail into her shorts pocket, before she wiggles out of that and her oversized t-shirt. She's wearing a dark green one piece swimsuit, partly because Alfred had told her once years ago that green looked really good on her, because it brought out the forest green of her eyes.
Daina had been so stunned then with another blush growing across her cheeks, and the wide eyed excitement of a girl with a crush realizing that said crush did sometimes find her cute or beautiful even. It's a nice thought, one that still resonates every now and again.
"Come on in!" Alfred calls back to her, "It's positively refreshing!"
Daina laughs, but she hurries up, discarding her clothes on top of her own slip on shoes as she hurries to go join her best friend in the water. As she steps into the water, it is in fact cold, cooling her off from the heat of the sun, but it's also so cold that she trembles slightly as she races in, to go join Alfred further into the lake.
"It is!" Daina is quick to agree, still laughing as Alfred smiles at her.
It's not all that different from all of the years that they've came out here, just to swim within this lake and goof off, and yet Daina doesn't splash Alfred, doesn't dare him to do anything.
It's as if his compliment of her in green from years ago, and his comment that writers are cuter than what they write, is still playing back in her head on loop. She doesn't know if it shows across her face, but maybe it does as Alfred swims a little closer, "Daina?"
"Yes?" Her face turns redder, even as her short answer sounds a little too excited, a little too loud, and a little too strangled all at once.
"Do you want me to kiss you?" It comes out awkwardly, "Or can I kiss you? Or I mean, I kind of like you, and I know we've been friends for forever, but...?" Alfred still can't seem to find the right words, and Daina realizes belatedly, maybe this is why she's the writer out of the two of them.
"Sure. Or...?" Daina has half a teasing remark on her lips that she isn't sure she is confident enough to say as she swims a little closer, and instead closes the gap between the two of them.
His lips are awkward against hers, and Daina realizes that she has absolutely no idea what she's doing. Writing a kiss into a story isn't quite the same thing as being kisses, and Alfred's lips are extra wet from having dove under the water earlier. And they are cold from the swim, rather than warm as she'd always imagined they'd be, in the brief moments that she'd let herself imagine what kissing him might be like.
And yet, despite the awkwardness of realizing that an old dream is coming true, it's beautiful just to be able to lean forward and kiss him.
"Or...?" Alfred jokes after they pull away, and Daina isn't sure why she thought kissing him would pull that one word out of his thoughts.
"I could kiss you...?" Daina admits with a red face, and within the cold water that they've both already adjusted to, Alfred hugs her like there's no tomorrow, a steady and solid reminder that he'll continue to be by her side, and despite her awkwardness, he still loves her, it just might be in a different kind of way that she'd never quite been able to anticipate despite all of her hope.