Rising Shards

Feeling like our mission was a success, we left the museum each with bags of goodies mainly from the pride exhibit, casually walking through the entranceway. We also each had a frozen banana on a stick. The banana stand was still in the museum, just moved to a different spot than I'd remembered.

"I feel kinda bad for grabbing so many buttons," Zeta said.

"I thought they were gonna ask us to pay for them," Stella said.

"That staffer reiterated that they were free, Stella!" Zeta said. "Reiterated! I wanted gender and orientation buttons for me, and I needed to make sure that my friends all got buttons too. And that button maker was really fun to use!"

Cyri made sure that Zeta had Calista and Tiafel added on Friendliest. She also made sure Stella and I had her added as a friend as well, so our chance encounter maybe wouldn't just be a one off deal. I'd run into people in the past who made a big thing about making sure we had contact info but never said anything to us again, but I guessed Cyri was the type to keep up with people she met.

"So, did you have a good time?" I asked, patted Zeta shoulder. Like last time, she flinched and cried out.

“Holy crap that scared me!”

"Zeta, come on, Evy was in the middle of talking to you," Stella said. "You weren't even distracted that time."

"I was distracted by the buttons!" Zeta said. She yelped again because we all forgot about the fang fountains at the entryway, which shot out a burst of water. Zeta wailed something about needing an escape route to the car as she darted off. We kept her in sight, but didn't run after her. Stella had my arm firmly in her grasp, enjoying the stroll once we were past the water spraying portion.

"So did you have a good time?" I asked.

"Uh huh," Stella said, nuzzling her head against my shoulder. "I get to suggest ideas for book displays and I wrote down so many authors to look into for one about pride!"

"Nice!" I said. "The collection might be a bit out of date from the Mrs. Paine days."

"I am well prepared for that," Stella said, turning her nose up into the air. "I have already added about two hundred books to the library's booklist that I feel would be excellent additions."

"Good! Those chumps better listen to your ideas, or I'll have words for em." I said. "Also, sorry, by the way."

"For what?"

"For the dork thing," I said.

"Evy," Stella laughed. Not in a like 'laugh at my worries' kind of way. It was a comforting sort of laugh. "It's alright."

"The exhibit wasn't making me self conscious or anything like that, it was more that kind of defensive...I dunno what. Just one of those...dumb blips." I said.

"Sometimes we just say stupid stuff, and that's OK!" Stella said. "Just don't beat yourself up about it, it was cute."

"Heh, thanks," I said.

"And you know what else?" Stella said. "I think I learned a lot from having a really smart and cool tour guide!"

"Oh yeah?" I asked.

"Uh huh, I think I know about....hm, I'd say 700% more about Cani than I did before, and that's mostly thanks to this guide," Stella said. "Super hot, too." She squeezed my arm a bit tighter. "I believe she promised some private lessons."

"That's right, she did," I said.

"Can't wait to see what she teaches me next." Stella winked at me.

When we got home, Zeta called out "Bulletin board!" and ran downstairs to her room. As Stella and I got situated in the living room, both fairly beat from our adventure, Zeta returned, making a triumphant noise as she held her backpack up to us, now adorned with some of the buttons she'd made at the exhibit.

"Eh? Eh?" Zeta asked, excitedly peeking out from behind the backpack as she moved it around. It was pretty precious.

"Looks great!" Stella said. "Makes me want to get a new backpack. I don't really have anything else to pin my buttons onto."

"You have a purse, don't you?" Zeta asked.

"Yeah, but it doesn't...it's not great for pins and buttons and such!" Stella said.

"Then get a new one," Zeta said. "One that is good for pins and buttons and such."

"Thanks for the input," Stella said. "I'll put it on the wish list."

A nice and cozy evening was what we needed after a fun and busy day. We were sleepy, but also rejuvenated. Zeta in particular seemed to really need that pride exhibit, and was excitedly talking about queerness for the rest of the night (between her pulling up a new clip from Tower of Hate and Love and spending a while theorizing with us about what it meant and if her fav Arlit was mentioned in it or if it was a red herring). While we were chatting about that, I spotted Stella changing the background on her phone to a picture of our names with the hearts around them. She sighed contentedly as she held her phone close, as if holding that picture closer to her heart. She caught me staring and pouted, but that pout faded when I matched her by changing my phone background to a selfie of the three of us that I took while we were at the museum.

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