TWENTY-SIX
Hat, sunglasses, purse—wallet, keys, cell phone.
Alright, she's pretty sure she's not forgetting anything. But don't quote her on that.
"Tsubasa, you have the picnic basket packed, right?" She's bouncing on her feet and her hands are constantly tugging at her clothes. A giddy feeling wells up in her chest, tickling her throat with half-formed notes.
She tries to stop her fidgeting when Tsubasa comes out of the kitchen, basket in hand.
"Calm down," Tsubasa says, tucking a stray lock behind her ear.
She pouts, and Tsubasa pulls her in for a tight hug.
"I'm nervous. You're nervous. Elfnein's nervous—probably. We're so going to mess this up!" Her hands climb up to clutch at Tsubasa's sweater. The soft material snags on one of her rings, whoops.
She tries to discreetly untangle herself as Tsubasa acknowledges, "Yes, we are nervous."
Somehow her wedding ring got caught, too. "But we're definitely ready to take this next step in our lives. We're ready to be parents," she replies, mostly to keep the conversation going so that she can get her rings free without unraveling Tsubasa's sweater, but even so her breath hitches in her throat.
Weaving a hand through her hair, Tsubasa marvels, "A family… I can hardly believe it. Do you think Elfnein knows?"
"Knows what?" It's really hard to maneuver her hands without alerting Tsubasa.
"Do you think Elfnein knows that we intend to adopt her?"
That actually makes her hum thoughtfully; she hadn't considered that. "I think it's kind of obvious, right? But you know what, we should be clear with her—be upfront about why we're… you know." She makes a vague sound of explanation.
Both rings seem to be particularly stubborn.
A few moments pass, and she realizes that Tsubasa hasn't replied. "Tsubasa?"
"…You got your rings stuck in my sweater, didn't you?" comes the wry question.
"Nooo… what makes you say that?" she says, even though at this point it's pretty pointless.
Under her hands, Tsubasa's sigh makes her shoulder blades go up and down. She slumps further into Tsubasa, giving up on detangling her rings.
Chuckling, Tsubasa tells her, "Just yank your hands away. It's fine if it damages the sweater—I will wear a different one, one that does not have stray threads."
Well, she doesn't quite yank away her hands, but she does pull them away. The caught thread unravels a bit before breaking off, though from there it's easy to remove from the prongs on her rings.
"It's not that bad." She smooths her fingers over the fabric, and it's as if nothing ever happened.
Tsubasa shrugs again. "Alright. Then, let us leave before we get nervous all over again."
Her eyes widen at that. She had completely forgotten she was nervous!
Except now it creeps back.
"Thanks for reminding me," she grumbles, only to be pulled into Tsubasa's embrace again.
"Worrywart," her wife admonishes fondly. "You checked the picnic basket twenty-six times this morning, remember? Everything will be fine."
a/n: I wanted another Maria chapter, but I wasn't sure what to write... A bit of couple-y love, yeah? I swear we'll get to the picnic tomorrow.
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