First Comes Love...Right?

•~Finale~•

Cards, candy, flowers.

Her admirer had found out she liked mint and daisies, but still kept killing trees.

Two out of three, maybe?

It was Valentine's Day but far less painful than it had been three days ago.

She had someone, someone who cared enough about her to do all this for her. And why she didn't know them, she still felt fuzzy thinking about it.

That was enough to make her forget her initial dislike of the season.

She even went to the fair, even though she promised never to.

Around her, she saw gifts for happy couples who towed each other around arm in arm, laughing as the sun set and staying out even as the temperature dropped heavily.

Watching the scene from the street though, she felt a bit lonely.

Something small poked her shoulder blades. "Huh?" Turning, her eyes met Fionn's hazel ones and she started. "Oh... It's yo-"

Another card from her secret admirer was in his hands. Had they enlisted Fionn to play delivery boy?

He held out the card, a slight reddish tint to his cheeks. From the cold maybe? "This is yours," he said, coughing awkwardly. "It's like the one I first got you."

First...got....?

She stared at the envelope and then him and then back again. "..." She grasped softly when she finally put the pieces together. "You sent me all that stuff?"

He nodded, blushing a deeper red. "It...um, was supposed to be a surprise earlier this week, but I lost track of time..."

She knew she was gaping at him.

Wh-what? Why?

So many questions and she couldn't ask any of them; there was no air in her lungs to speak.

Why would he...?

"Is this a joke?" She blurted out.

He looked like he had been lashed, jolting back with an intense look of pain on his face.

"N-No," there, in his voice, she knew she had hurt him. "I really wanted to..." He looked down.

Midack felt deep embarrassment, at herself and the situation. She was in a corner, surrounded by new, unnamed emotions.

She hid her own blushing face from him, despite being unaware of the heat in her cheeks. "W-why me?" she asked, her hair shielding her. "I bet a lot of girls wanted to be your Valentine. Plus I'm not exactly interesting."

His head snapped up, incredulous that she would ask that. "You're amazing. You won the Sports Daze all on your own; you have some of the best test scores in the school. You're funny and...You can't tell me that you're not interesting."

"The only reason I won is because Kolga dropped out and I went against Daire in track." She balled up her fists knowing that it didn't matter to him. "It was a fluke and everyone knows it."

"Still." He finally looked at her again. "I-I was really impressed. I wanted to talk to you."

"Why didn't you, oh handsome student body president?"

He didn't respond with anything but a cough into his fist.

She got the hint and couldn't help a snigger at the irony. "You were nervous?" She had to bite back another laugh. "Seriously? You, the handsome boy toy of the school?"

"'Boy toy'...?" Fionn shook the maybe insult off. "So I kinda wanted to-"

"'Be my valentine?'" She frowned. "You killed a lot of trees. Not sure I can be with a murderer."

He blinked those hazel eyes of his. "That's a joke, right?"

Midack shrugged. "Half and half. I guess I'll have to teach you about the lives of arborians."

Not understanding half of it, he didn't hear her deny him.

"But!" She pointed a finger at him. "Don't think this means I want to be your girlfriend! B-because I do...n't!"

He grinned in that way only he could, his hand outstretched for her to take.

"Well, then how about I show you around? Friend?"

She stared at his palm. They were so different. He had written words of love for her; she wasn't a romantic. He was the popular golden student body president; she was an introverted truant.

How would this work...?

But looking into his genuine eyes, she was reminded of a song she used to sing when skipping rope.

"Fionn and Midack, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage. Then they come with the baby carriage."

The song was wrong, she realized, taking his hand.

Love doesn't always come first for some people.

"Sure."

First comes something akin to like.