Day 19 - First Kiss

Bart counted himself lucky that he never had to look too far to find friends of all temperaments. Margie was spunky but serious, Sigurd was reserved but rebellious, Maison was lighthearted but lucid...the list went on. The Desert Orca himself, of course, was proud but pure-hearted; tenacious but tender; ostentatious but observant.

Everyone had an out side and an in side. Bart's new friend Fei, however...was more like all inside. Consistently distracted, with a soft voice that distorted to unexpected volumes in times of distress or harsh combat. An unassuming silhouette, with spiky edges to the touch. Yet endlessly humble and giving, what little he had.

Strangely, Fei wasn't so easy to both-sides box.

It wasn't even that Bart wanted to be able to simplify Fei down to roots and solutions. Rather, he felt at odds with the puncture wounds dotting the skin underneath the wraps at the pugilist's wrists.

Everyone on the Yggdrasil knew about Bart's scars. No one knew about Fei's.

Did Fei himself even know their real history?

One restless night, the issue of that inequality in knowledge was solved. Bare-backed, Bart fought through his apprehension of seriosity and showed Fei a grin perhaps even a little freer than his usual.

Fei actually smiled, at that.

Then Bart laughed. "Say, Fei, if I didn't know any better, I'd say we might as well kiss right now."

Fei's blush: the duck of his chin furtive, the color high in his cheeks. Bart loved watching his eyebrows dance with a peculiar freedom, as if they were the bouncing fists at the ready - always at the ready, but never tense.

"You must know something I don't."

Fei was often tense. He never seemed half so...relaxed, as this.

Huh. Maybe that was all Bart really needed to know.