Femslash February 2020 Day 20: Perform.
Is This Your Card?
Six playing cards were spread out sporadically on the coffee table. There was nothing particularly special about them. They were average and typical, their blue backsides facing Rei with their decorative pen drawings of mermaids and wreaths.
If she wanted to be honest, the challenge Tome presented to her seemed miniscule. She had moved on to bigger things like sensing the right pathway to take through the sewers. Even her foresight developed, allowing her to witness events in the near future such as when she saw herself buying a package of strawberries only to realize they had mold on the bottom at home, and it gave her the opportunity to correct her mistake when she would go to buy strawberries tomorrow.
But looking at the cards, she frowned. Tome had said she had a real challenge for Rei when she walked through the doors of Spirits and Such Consultation Office. She had been grinning from ear to ear, her smile seeming painted on her face when she dragged Rei over to the couch and flung her hand out to the cards.
"Well, is it hard, huh, huh, huh?" Tome asked, crossing her arms and leaning back into her seat. She crossed her ankles and tapped her foot, her impatience tangible as Rei tucked her hands between her thighs.
"Well, using only a bit of my power, I can tell one of them is clearly different," she said, leaning forward in her armchair.
Tome gasped, her fingers tensing as she jerked her arms to her chest. She screwed her face up, her right eye squinting and her left widening. She kicked her legs out and slung herself forward, resting her elbows to her knees and blurting, "Already? Your powers improved that much? That's awesome!"
Rei chuckled and leaned back, avoiding Tome's spittle. She watched Tome sink back into the couch cushion, exhaling through a small gap in her lips. Tilting her head, Rei raised her index finger, and she glanced at the cards before stopping on the one resting diagonal between them. The slight crease on its corner would have made it stand out to the untrained eye, but the others also had folds, as if Tome had individually bent each card to muddle Rei's clairvoyance.
It was a neat trick, albeit one she clearly saw through. Rei set her hand over the card and dragged it through the others. She kept her attention on Tome, watching her try and fail to swallow the lump in her throat, but to her surprise, excitement shone on her features. While Rei raised the card, keeping its back to her, Tome's pupils dilated, and her smile stretched wider into her cheeks, deepening her dimples.
"And this card is the one you wanted me to pick, right?" Rei asked, flipping the card over only to gasp.
Tome dug her fingernails into her palms and felt her pulse flutter in her neck. She gripped the hem of her shirt and jiggled her legs, observing mysticism cross Rei's face before settling into realization. The way Rei's eyebrows shot up and her mouth dropped, Tome gulped and maintained her enthusiasm, hoping her plan would go accordingly as Rei straightened her back.
"This...isn't a playing card," Rei murmured, Tome beginning to turn over the regular cards.
It was printed on the same material as the cards. Sleek, smooth, it was no wonder that she had been fooled by its appearance. While the design on the back was the same as the others, what was on the front was nothing like the various Kings, Queens, and Jacks scattered on the table.
In shimmery, golden lettering was a question posed only for her.
Rei sucked down a breath and raised her head. She brushed through her hair and clipped a few stray locks behind her ear. She looked back to the card, Tome's brow starting to accumulate beads of sweat as the silence stretched between them, but then, Rei broke into a grin larger than one Tome could ever muster.
"Of course I'll go to the movies with you. You know, you could've asked," Rei said, chuckling, and Tome cheered and pumped her fist in the air.
"But it's way more fun testing out your powers and asking you out like that," she countered, lunging to her feet and gripping her hips, cackling.
"And you're doing it on company time, too."
Tome grimaced, her bliss exchanging for annoyance. Reigen sat at his desk balancing a pencil on his upper lip. She shot her finger at him, accusing him of mindlessly scrolling through his social media feed, which she seemingly guessed correctly when Reigen clicked out of the tab.
Rei laughed and tuckled the card in her sweatshirt pocket. She made a mental note to frame it when she got home, pushing herself out of the armchair and collecting the other cards. Stuffing them back inside their box, she tossed it onto the table and gently reminded Tome that they needed to work.
"Okay, okay, but anyway, what movie do you wanna see?" Tome asked, taking Rei's hand. She guided her over to several boxes in a corner of Reigen's office, each one containing case files for them to organize.
"Whatever you want to see is good with me," she replied, bending over and taking hold of a manilla folder filled to the brim with wrinkled sheets of paper.
As Tome eagerly rambled on about an upcoming monster movie, Rei smiled as Tome lit up like a lightbulb, the tips of her own hair raising slightly with a soft burst of psychic power