It's center stage, this Valentine's. Heart cards, heart shaped chocolate boxes, stuffed bears and other animals holding hearts, and of course, the actual giving of a heart. Hearts aren't really given just one day out of a year or rather in one instant either. You can't give a heart without the process that happens before that.
Rose sighed, hand toying with a heart shaped card, blank as if there were nothing more to say. Rose presses down one of the curved sides and sighs as she glances away from the card and around her room. Everything seems to fall as if they were plush and pink down feathers, carefully arranged in a seemingly normal bedroom. Her bed is pink and carefully, the sheet is laid down overtop, followed by a soft blanket that she's held on to ever since she turned five.
There are pictures across her wall. Juleka and Rose hanging out, snapshots that tell the story of a friendship, and pictures of Rose and Marinette laughing one day, that a friend of theirs had taken without either being aware, until they were shown the picture, beautiful joy that could encase a moment.
Rose peeks at a picture of Luka, Juleka, and her crowded on a couch together, Rose, for once, is squished in the middle. She isn't surprised that she could see the brotherly and sisterly bond between her two friends even in the picture, nor is she surpised about how comfortable she is there.
She peeks at a picture of her with Juleka, Mylene, Marinette, Adrien, Alix, and Alya. They are having fun, and Rose's lips are tilted up in an almost laugh, the picture being taken before the sound can even leave her lips. Rose isn't sure why these pictures of friendship that always fill her with warmth make her feel enclosed.
She stared at the light pink heart in her hand and let a sigh loose that felt more like a collapse, maybe the card wasn't meant to happen. If she could narrow down a best friend right now, she wouldn't be able to choose anymore. Juleka's always been by her side, and in a way, she is Rose's bestest best friend, but it's hard not to say that Marinette with her steady warmth and generosity isn't her best friend.
How could she deny that Adrien as recently as he came into her life became a very close friend? Could she surmise somehow that Luka that she's known for years isn't also her best friend? Or, what about Alix, with how determined and loyal she is? Or, what about Mylene who is strong and gentle at the same time? Or, Alya that somehow manages to push people into stronger versions of themselves through her steady stream of energy and encouragement?
Rose isn't sure if she has a best friend and glancing back down at the card sitting on her lap, isn't entirely sure if she has a crush either. Maybe, just maybe, she could give her heart in a way that isn't so romantically traditional? She'd figure out love eventually, but it's sudden as a single girl to pick and place a dart into a future romance.
She stands up, card in hand, as she makes her way away from pink and into the casual browns of the kitchen, bright wooden colors surround her more so as she debates over how to gift a kind of love to others that is readily available as the friend that she always strives to be is. Just how much, she loves and appreciates them should flow from this day and onward, as she reaches out for a chance to bake something sweet for all of them.