Mako's Message: Racing against my battery here. Hope you enjoy the chapter, and her gift. It's not much else after all. I'll get into more stuff she forgot about in the next chapter.


Dave knows me so well it's scary sometimes.

I admit I was hoping it was something, anything really, that involved skin-on-skin contact, but what he gave me was way better.

Okay, ALMOST better.

I didn't know when else I'd get a chance to see him alone so I went home with him after school. When I told Marcus I was stopping there after school his only complaint was, "Don't you want to try out the Wii?"

Not that I'm not interested in giving it a shot, but well, I had to choose between the Wii and my "real" present that Dave could only give me in private, so I chose the real present. Duh.

When we got there Dave checked the house for his dad and for a second I thought he was going to come back and say something like, "Now that we're alone, I can give you your birthday kiss." and then he'd lift my chin up and kiss me. And then he'd walk me backwards so my back was against the wall and he'd slide his hands down my sides and play with the edge of my shirt a little before sliding his hands under it and oh god that sounds good. I want that so bad it hurts.

But that's not what he gave me. Instead he took me up to his room and when I walked in he closed the door and told me to close my eyes. I was practically shivering in anticipation. And then he tells me to open my eyes, and he's holding out a staff. It looked like a normal bo staff at first. But after a second I realized it was a little shorter and thicker than it should be. He handed it to me and said, "I thought you'd like something you could actually use on patrols."

I confess, when I looked at it, I thought he was joking. There was no way this was my "real" present. Why couldn't he have given this to me last night? Why would he think I'd rather have this than my butterfly sword?

Then he said, "Now, this is something you can use on any mugger or purse snatcher, and I thought you'd like that. But what about when we go up against someone that's actually dangerous? Or we're out numbered? Or we find The Motherfucker? Well, if that's the case..." then he twisted the staff, and I heard it click, and then he pulled it apart, and these two, beautiful, blades appeared. As he pulled them apart they gave off that beautiful "shing" sound and the sun made them shine like they were god's gift or something.

He flipped them around and handed them to me and I was too surprised to even move for a second and then my face fucking broke into the most ridiculous smile and I took them and felt the weight and gave them a few quick swings to get a feel for them before practically jumping on Dave and thanking him for such an awesome present and how I couldn't wait to find someone I could use them on.

Dave got real serious for a second and said, "I don't think it'll be too long before that happens. That motherfucker will be causing trouble again soon." But then he went back to his dopey optimistic self and said, "But we can handle it. We'll kick his ass whenever he decides to show his face again, right?"

I said, "No we're not. We're gonna fucking gut his ass."

Dave grinned and we fist bumped as he said, "That's my Mindy," and pulled me into a hug.

Then he said, "So, do you mind if I take you home now? I wanted to get in a nap before work if we're going out tonight."

I really wanted to stay with him, but I wanted to spend a few hours with him tonight more than an hour with him now. So I let him take me home. Now I'm just trying to decide if I should take a nap too or try out the Wii.

Eh. I can try it tomorrow.