Tired.
That’s how Wallflower had been feeling for the past few days.
Her sickness had mostly passed by now, finally feeling well enough to attend school again. Unfortunately, what she was met with was pages of work and assignments that had to be done.
It was all spread across her desk in her room. She couldn’t get herself to start anything last night. So much as lifting a pencil made her feel drained beyond belief.
Physically attending school again didn’t make her feel much better. It was all so tiring, both physically and mentally. She wanted to chalk it up to a lingering sickness, but in truth she knew it was something deeper. Maybe just general malaise, or something more mental, but she didn’t like it.
Walking through the halls made her feel even worse. Shuffling along the tiled floor, her head down, passing by dozens of students who didn’t constantly feel like something was terribly and awfully wrong. Who didn’t have a constant pit in their stomachs and a slight weariness in their legs for no valid reason. She tried to relax as she made her way to her next class, but she felt so tired, and couldn’t stop thinking about all of the things troubling her..
The greenhouse was in rough shape after her brief absence. The other members of the gardening club, including Ditzy and Roseluck, were pretty good about tending to the plants, but some of her personal projects were wilting by the time she was back. Her red chrysanthemums weren’t doing too good, either. She’d have to take care of that after school—
“Wallflower! Hey..”
Wallflower shuddered as she felt a hand on her shoulder, and a voice calling her name from behind her. But, of course, she put a face to that voice in an instant. She turned around, shocked but not disappointed at all.
“A-Aria?” Wallflower questioned, turning around to properly face her, “Um..what are you doing? We’ve never..talked like this in the hall..” She trailed off, looking over to the students around them that were walking by. Everyone was taking glances at Aria, most likely barely acknowledging Wallflower in the process.
What were they all thinking, looking at the two together like this? For the most part, they were hardly seen together in public before. Sure, they ate together sometimes, and almost always met up after school, but barely anyone saw them in those cases. Here, everyone was seeing them. Seeing them talking, together.
“..Yeah,” Aria admitted, seemingly embarrassed about it, “but it’s important, alright? —Uh,” She took her hand off of Walfllower’s shoulder, having let it rest there for a few seconds too long, “Have you been okay?”
Wallflower blinked in surprise. Aria was surprisingly concerned regarding Wallflower’s health ever since she got sick. And Wallflower wasn’t visibly ill this time, to most people anyways. Aria had to be very perceptive to notice something was off.
“Um, well..no, not really. I’ve been..I-I don’t know, tired? Drained? It’s been, uh, I don’t know. Just. I’ve felt really tense, or something. Weird..how could you tell?”
“I’ve seen you walking around today,” Aria said, before a blush crept onto her face, “..n-not, like, in a creepy way or whatever, I’ve just seen you. Walking. Hard not to notice my, err..best..friend.” It still strained her to say that. Wallflower still thought it was cute.
“You just..didn’t look okay. And I was. Worried. So now I’m asking you if you’re okay.” Aria tried to smile, two cute and toothy rows of teeth being revealed in the process. How long has it been since Wallflower had seen her teeth? Maybe around a month? It was good to see them again.
“O-Oh, um, well. I..guess I’ve been kinda tired, still. Still sick, maybe. Just coming to school makes me feel so..ugh. I don’t know..” Wallflower frowned. It was tiring just to try to explain it. “I-It sucks just acknowledging it, so, sorry I can’t really explain..”
“Oh. It’s fine, it’s fine!” Aria spat out, quick to absolve any worry that she might be frustrated, “..so, do you wanna hang out later or something? After class, I mean.” she asked, in the tone that she always used which made it sound more like a statement than a question.
The two hadn’t spent time together outside of school since Aria came over while she was sick. Now Aria was the one asking to hang out? Wallflower must have been dreaming.
“S-Sure! I’d like that!” Wallflower exclaimed, “but, uhm, I’ll be at the greenhouse for a bit after school, since a few of the plants aren’t doing too good..y-you can wait for me, though, right?”
“Nah. I’ll just come with.” Aria bluntly stated, before looking around. Most other students had made it to their class, the time to move through the halls now dwindling. “We should get to class. See you later, dweeb.”
Aria left her with a jab to her shoulder, just barely less forceful than the other playful punches she had given her in the past.
“R-Right..see you later..”
Just like that, Wallflower felt like the rest of the day was going to be perfectly okay.
Wallflower hunched over the table in the middle of the greenhouse, which was where most of the gardening club plants were. Various members’ plants and individual projects, anything they wanted to grow with the assistance of Wallflower. All placed into pots with their names shoddily taped onto the face of the pots.
Except for a few, which were Wallflower’s own little projects. Forget-me-nots, one of her favorites, a rather expensive venus fly trap, and most importantly, her red chrysanthemums. They had been growing for a while now. She wanted them to be mature enough to pluck one or two off.
How long had they been growing? Oh, right, since Aria picked out the seeds for her just a few months ago.
..That felt like an eternity ago. It was kind of funny. Wallflower always wanted to grow something for Aria. And she ended up picking out a flower that meant love.
Love..
Wallflower still wanted to give these chrysanthemums to Aria soon. They were just taking a while to grow. An unusual amount of time, yes, but..they just needed time. Time to grow, and bloom, until one day it’ll seem like they’ll bloom in an instant.
The little bell Wallflower installed above the door rang—she didn’t like it when people surprised her with how silent the door was, so she installed it after a few days of the gardening club becoming popular.
Turning to face the door, it was exactly who she expected.
“O-Oh, Aria! You really did come..”
“‘Course I did, dweeb. I..” Aria opened her mouth to say something else, but she caught herself and instead walked up to Wallflower and the plants she was tending to.
Wallflower nervously giggled as Aria came close, moving to make space for her around the table. “You’ve never been in here, have you? I used to spend..hours in here, after school. The plants never needed that much care, but..it was all I had. Now you take up almost all my time.”
“Nope. I meant to check in a few times, but I guess I never did.” Aria smirked at her last comment, “I’ll try to keep it that way. Don’t gotta stay all crammed in here. It’s kinda suffocating..”
Wallflower was suddenly aware of how stuffy it had gotten in the greenhouse, now grabbing at her sweater collar and fanning it against her collarbone. “Y-Yeah, it’s already not too big of a greenhouse to begin with, and the temperature has to be pretty warm to keep the plants safe. I’m pretty used to it, though..”
“Even in your big dumb sweaters?”
Wallflower rolled her eyes. “Yes, even in my dumb sweaters. But, anyways..” she moved over to the plants on the tables lining the glass walls of the greenhouse, “the club mostly grows whatever they want that I buy, within reason. Of course. We do grow some vegetables, though! We don’t have much space for big plants to grow them, but we did make a space right here for peppers..o-oh, and, some flowers are just pretty profitable, so I, um..I pocket a fair bit of what we make from them, since the school funding usually covers most of our expenses..”
“Ooh, embezzling your own money?” Aria’s smirk grew wider, showing teeth now. “I was never a bad influence on you, you were always a little criminal.”
“I-It’s not embezzling, I’m not even obligated to put it all back into the club!” Wallflower retorted, her cheeks now red from both embarrassment and being teased. “I just..let everyone assume it’s all going back. I barely take any, too..just enough to support myself a bit..”
“Relax, I get it. And I know you don’t like talking about it too much. All I want is for you to tell me if things are getting rough for you and your uncle. ‘Dagi and Sonata won’t mind parting with some money, they don’t even check our bank account.”
That certainly made Wallflower smile. Aria really did know how to respect her boundaries..and to assure her that she had a safety net if things got bad? Aria truly understood her.
“Though, since we’re talking about crime..” Aria put her hands on her hips, giving Wallflower a particularly devious smirk. “Wanna shoplift with me?”
“S-Shoplift? That’s an actual crime..a-aren’t you rich?”
“Pshh. Yeah. But not paying for something is what makes it fun. Now come with me so we can hang out.”
Wallflower’s moral compass spun. There was no north pole now. Or a south pole. Which way did a compass point to? It didn’t matter. The magnetic pull of her morals was completely and utterly thrown off now! Completely! Utterly! There was a new, evil west pole! And that evil west pole was Aria!
“..okay!”
The mall, Canterlot’s hub of consumerism and one of the more disappointing places for teenagers to spend their time at if they didn’t like spending money or playing on the children’s playground.
Wallflower would have liked to do one of those things, but she still enjoyed the atmosphere. It was where people naturally gathered. It was nice to be part of a crowd.
Did she ever have the money to shop there herself? No, all of her and her uncle’s purchases were made at the thrift or dollar store. Or someplace cheap like that.
But this time, she wasn’t exactly paying, if Aria had anything to do about it.
“Sssooo,” Wallflower drawled, turning to Aria as they walked together. “What are you, umm..g-gonna, y’know..”
Aria did something in between a snort and a smirk. “What? You think saying it is gonna get us arrested?”
“No! I just..don’t usually ask ‘‘what are you gonna shoplift,’ it feels weird..”
“First off, don’t worry. Second off, we’re shoplifting something to wear to the beach. Sonata told us there’s one really close to here, and we’re pretty damn excited. It’s..pretty stupid how we never realized it, but it’ll be awesome to finally swim again. And you’re coming with us. Whether you like it or not.”
Wallflower blinked. The beach? They were going to the beach? The beach where you were ideally to get half-naked and swim? With parts of your body showing? With your arms showing?
“O-Oh, haha, well, t-that’s the thing, I can’t swim! So, uh, guess you guys have to count me out..”
Aria gave her a quizzical look. “You..don’t know how to swim? Why not?” she asked, the ability to swim being as simple as walking to her.
“..I-I..I’m scared of drowning..” Wallflower was actually telling the truth. It was a horrible fear throughout her early childhood, and she still couldn’t get over it.
“I’ll teach you when we’re there. Simple,” Aria stated, shooting down that excuse.
“Well, I—..uhm, it’s still pretty chilly, isn’t it? Pretty mediocre weather for the beach..”
“Nah,” Aria bluntly replied, “Adagio made sure to check. The day we’re going is gonna be pretty warm. Really convenient.”
“Oh, um..” Wallflower frowned. There was no way out of it. There was also no way she was going to explain why she didn’t want to go to the beach, she never wanted anyone to know..
Suddenly, they were at their destination. A pretty generic clothing store, probably some standard chain store that Wallflower wasn’t familiar with because of the price. Aria dragged her in by her wrist, going straight to the swimwear.
Wallflower yelped, having to clumsily stumble after her with how gosh darn strong Aria was as she pulled her. She always noticed how nice her arms looked, but she didn’t know Aria was strong enough to nearly pull her out from her feet!
“I-Isn’t this a little obvious?” Wallflower stammered, just barely holding her footing as Aria dragged her through all the rows of clothing.
“What? Nah, not as long as we aren’t holding anything when we leave.”
Almost at the back of the store, near the changing rooms, was the swimwear. The dreaded swimwear. Wallflower squirmed just looking at it all. Sure, for swimwear standards, it was all modest and what you expect when going to the beach. One piece and two piece swimsuits, everything in between and out-between, as well as the masculine options like shorts and the like.
None of it seemed particularly appealing to Wallflower. Sure, she could just say no and deny Aria’s forceful invitation to the beach, but…she didn’t want that. She really did want to go with Aria, her fellow sirens included! But she very well couldn’t show up in her usual outfit.
“Wallflower.”
“—Huh?” Wallflower snapped out of her thoughts, realizing she had been silently staring at the racks of swimwear while Aria was actually browsing.
“Dummy..” Aria rolled her eyes, “Anyways. What do you think?” She held a two-piece swimsuit by the hanger and showed it to Wallflower. It was relatively simple, but miraculously it was the same neon blue-green that highlighted her hair.
“W-What do I think?”
“..Yeah. What do you think of it. I like it. It’ll match with my hair, but not too much. Contrasts well, or something,” Aria explained. She didn’t show it much, but she cared about her style and good fashion as much as her two siren compatriots did.
“I-I..umm, I..” Wallflower immediately blocked the mental image of Aria wearing the very swimsuit out as soon as she even had a notion of it. No, no, no. Not right now. “It looks..good. It’ll look good on you! I think..n-not that, umm, it’s..n-not, um..not that it, uhh..”
“Good,” Aria said, stopping Wallflower from having to awkwardly trail off, “I like the color. If you like it, I’ll take it.”
Wallflower went silent again as she processed what Aria said. Was that really the major deciding factor? Whether she liked the swimsuit or not? Of course, she was going to like Aria wearing any kind of swimsuit—that wasn’t the point!
But, still, did Aria really care that much for Wallflower’s opinion?
“You gonna pick one?” Aria asked, interrupting Wallflower’s thoughts, “I could pick one for you, if you keep staring and don’t even try to look.” Her words were coated in her usual snark, but Wallflower could have sworn that she was almost smiling. Almost!
“N-No! Here, I’ll..find one!” Not wanting to waste any more of Aria’s time, Wallflower immediately began searching through the feminine choices of swimwear. Nothing too revealing, but maybe she could find something..something a little too modest, something puritanical, something fit for scuba divers..
“I’m gonna try this thing on in the changing rooms. Come when you find something.”
“Mhmm..” Wallflower hummed in response, still looking.
Aha!
She fished out an off-black full body swimsuit with boring and dull green accents. It covered her body entirely, save for her head, feet, and hands. This was exactly what she was looking for! It was the complete opposite of revealing! It might’ve been a bit form-fitting, but that was fine by Wallflower. It wasn’t going to get much better than this.
“H-Hey, Aria, what do you—oh..right.” Wallflower stopped herself as she remembered what Aria told her. The changing rooms.
Making a short walk to where the changing rooms were, Wallflower stopped in front of the only occupied stall. She took a quick look down, seeing Aria’s usual chunky boots. “A-Aria? I, uh, I picked something out. Finally..”
“Huh?” Aria called out from within the stall, “Oh, cool, I’ll come out. Just a sec.”
Wait. Was Aria coming out while dressed in her swimsuit? Was she trying to show Wallflower? More importantly, was Wallflower going to see her in it? Of course, she was going to eventually when they were to go to the beach, but now? Aria in the two-piece she picked out? Right in front of her? Not just in her imagination?
It was too late to turn away now. She could hear the little lock on the stall clicking out of place. She could see the word “occupied” go from red to a green “unoccupied” in slow motion. She wasn’t going to turn away in time! Instead, Wallflower did the only thing she could do to avoid anything awkward! While feeling her cheeks already burning hot, Wallflower shut her eyelids tight! Just as the stall opened!
“..what are you doing.”
“W-What?” Wallflower managed to bring her hands up to cover her face, not giving herself so much as a chance to peek. “I..uh..” Was it possible Aria wasn’t wearing it? There was only one way to find out..
By taking a peeeeeek..
“Oh. Um..sorry.” Wallflower only peeked with one eye, hiding her now burning hot blush behind her hands. She hooked the hanger for her swimsuit on her arm.
“..is that the one you’re gonna take?” Aria glanced to said swimsuit, nodding in something that was probably approval. “It suits you. Just put it on underneath your clothes and follow my lead.”
“Wait, are you, err..wearing yours underneath your clothes?”
Aria rolled her eyes, having a tiny chortle at Wallflower’s question. “Duh. That’s how we leave without paying for it. They can’t force you to take off your clothes, especially when it’s barely noticeable like this. Now get in there so we can get out of here.”
With a gentle push from Aria, Wallflower was urged into the stall. Ugh..she hoped it wouldn’t feel too weird to wear under all her clothes.
With enough rubbing up against the odd-feeling material and fumbling with the zipper, Wallflower was fully changed into her swimsuit of choice. Her baggy choice of clothing made it impossible to know she was wearing it underneath! Now came the actual hard part..
Working up the nerve to come out and leave without paying.
“O-Okay, umm..” Wallflower began, hesitantly opening the stall door, “so..we just..leave? Without paying?”
“Yup,” Aria bluntly answered, “Just follow my lead.”
Grabbing her wrist, Aria once again yanked Wallflower along and walked straight towards the exit. This time, much more leisurely. Casual, but not too casual. Inconspicuous, but not too inconspicuous. Kind of life walking around in your own house. Without an urgent purpose, almost absentmindedly.
Well, that’s what Aria was doing. Wallflower was practically sweating bullets.
But..they did it. They walked right out of the store, into the freedom of the mall. Without paying for a thing! Not a thing!
“W-We..I..really just shoplifted..” Wallflower had to contemplate this for a moment. This was probably her first, real, actual crime. A crime that was explicitly not something people should do, something she would have never done by herself.
But she did it with Aria.
And she liked it.
“Uh-huh. I’m sure you’re having some kind of crazy revelation about it or something.”
“..I-I am.”
“Oh. Uh. Well..it’ll get easier. I’ll try not to drag you into any crimes for a minute, though, you aren’t looking too good..” Aria glanced over to Wallflower, “You okay?”
“U-Umm, yeah..” Wallflower shakily answered, “..I think it’s just my empty stomach..can we get something to eat?”
“Oh, sure. I’ll pay.”
“We aren’t shoplifting the food?”
Aria rolled her eyes with a smile. “That’s a little too much for you. And also something you can’t really do in a food court. So don’t worry about it, I’ll pay. What do you want?”
Wallflower hummed as she thought, recalling the possible options the food court in the mall had. “I haven’t had a pretzel in a while..”
“Pretzels sound good. C’mon, you’re shaking. You only do that when you’re nervous or hungry, and I think you’re both.”
“Hehe, yeah, I am..”
“Then let’s go eat! Which one do you like? I just want something with the cheese sauce.”
Wallflower stuck her tongue out, not liking the idea of cheese in sauce form at all. “Yuck. I like the pretzel bite things..”
“Pretzel bites for you, then. But don’t diss cheese sauce like that. It’s good stuff.”
“Too slimy..”
“It’s not supposed to be slimy! I don’t know where you got that idea, but you’re totally wrong. Now c’mon.”
With that, Aria grabbed Wallflower by the wrist once more. This time, Wallflower kept up as they walked to the food court.
Wearing the full body swimsuit underneath all her clothes felt a little weird, but that was okay. If she was with Aria, everything was okay.
Everything was good.