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“Damn, I know I coulda worked harder on the wrapping for yours but did you really have to show me up so much?” Fig laughed, looking up from the handsomely wrapped box, immaculately covered in folded red paper and tied with a silver bow.
“It’s not my fault that you didn’t wrap it at all!” Protested Adaine, smiling at the memory of Fig’s present from the other month, half of which was still hanging from her neck.
“Wow, ok, first off! It was briefly wrapped in my hair, lest you forget, and I don’t think you did because it clearly left an impression,” Fig gesticulated at Adaine’s hair which she had cut short in the past couple of weeks, her verve carrying her on her lighthearted tirade without noticing Adaine’s blush, “and secondly! You’re really gonna make me feel bad for not having time to package your present on my birthday?”
“I didn’t say anything!” rolling her eyes, Adaine nudged Fig who jokingly half fell from the angled bench of the bus stop they were waiting at. “Just that it would be impossible for me to not wrap it better,”
“Wow, you’re really gonna-”
“Shut up!” Adaine pushed Fig again, with more force this time. If they weren’t alone on the quiet street she’d be worried about making a scene but, as Fig had agreed, they were alone when she gave Fig her present.
She wasn’t even sure why she felt uncomfortable sharing her gift with the rest of the Bad Kids, but when the others had been handing Fig her gifts at her locker before school, all Adaine could do was say:
“Can I give it to you later… like… alone?” And of course Fig had understood. Fig was cool. She deserved a better present and maybe that was why Adaine had been too nervous? She thought her present wasn’t good enough?
“Wow, telling me to shut up? On my birthday?” Fig’s faux offence brought Adaine back to the present. As in the current instant of time, not the gift. Though she was about to open the gift so it honestly worked either way.
“I will strangle you.” Adaine responded, as deadpan as possible while suppressing an affectionate smile. Something she’d been finding harder and harder to do around Fig lately.
“Not very wizardy.”
“I want the pleasure of killing you with my bare hands,”
“Kinky.”
“Shut up!” Adaine squeaked, blushing furiously.
“Hey, I’m not shaming, like, whatever you’re into is fine- as long as it’s consensual,”
“Please… just stop…” Groaning, Adaine buried her face in her hands.
“I just think that it’s always important to discuss issues of consent and- hey!” Fig’s spiel was cut off as Adaine flicked a finger and summoned a mage hand to snatch the package from Fig’s hands while she was distracted.
“Well clearly you’ve got more important things to discuss than opening your present…”
“Noooo,” Fig immediately made puppy dog eyes which Adaine wouldn’t be able to resist even if she had been being serious. “Please, Addy, I’ll be good, I promise!”
“Really?”
“Really! There’ll be no need to choke me whatsoever,” Fig said eagerly, holding her hands out flat, pleadingly.
“Hmmmm,” Adaine pretended to consider for a few seconds before dropping the spell and allowing the present to fall into Fig’s open palms. “Fine,”
“Unless you want to, of course,” Fig cackled wildly at Adaine’s annoyed expression, “Last one, I promise,”
“Just open it,” sighed Adaine, like she wasn’t terrified of what was about to happen.
Grinning, Fig tore open the wrapping paper and studied the small necklace box.
“It’s inside the box, not just the box,” Adaine pointed out, laughing at Fig’s eyes narrowing.
“Yes, I got that, I was merely enjoying the journey.”
Adaine raised her eyebrows at the torn paper.
“Some journeys are best enjoyed fast,” shrugged Fig.
Finally, Fig opened the box and Adaine’s breath stopped as she awaited Fig’s reaction. Though the bard seemed to be as frozen as Adaine’s lungs were, one hand hovering over the silver contents.
“I know that, well, I know giving you back part of a gift you just gave to me and that you had thrown away is a bit, I don’t know, I don't really know the standard gift giving etiquette but, I don’t think that’s like a commonly done thing, but hey, what’s so good about being common, but maybe there’s a reason that something like that isn’t super common, I mean I don’t think this situation has ever come up too much but-”
“Addy…” Fig managed to speak, barely above a whisper, almost drowned out by the distant sounds of traffic but to Adaine the two syllables were the loudest thing she’d ever heard. “It’s beautiful,”
The knot of tension in Adaine’s chest untangled and she finally breathed, almost sagging back against the structure of the bus stop.
Wordlessly she watched as Fig, equally silent, lifted the silver locket half out of the black velvet, studying the freshly polished pendant.
It had been a simple, unadorned locket when Fig had received it, and when she last saw this half, it had been tarnished and badly bent from where she had discarded it. She had seen the half Adaine had kept, which had made up the front face of the locket, and had been impressed with how she had cleaned it up but had assumed the back half had been too badly damaged to repair.
Clearly not.
“What’s the stone?” she asked, ghosting a fingertip over the greyish stone which had been embedded into the metal, admiring the subtle lustre of its surface.
“Oh, it’s an uncut diamond,” Adaine said, casually.
“It’s stunning…” breathed Fig, tilting the necklace back and forth and studying how the diamond bounced light into the silver frame, creating an almost ethereal glint.
“Thanks!” Adaine blushed “I was going to cut it as well but-”
“Wha- Wait? ‘As well’? What do you mean?” Fig looked away from the jewellery for a second to gaze up at Adaine’s blue eyes which seemed to shine even brighter.
“Well, you did that whole rant about the consumerist and exploitative nature of the diamond industry when we were shopping that one time and I figured you might prefer an ‘artificial’ one; obviously calling it artificial is kind of stupid given that it is real and practically indistinguishable from a mined diamond but still.”
“So… you made me a diamond?” Fig almost could have laughed at the absurdity of that if it wasn’t one of the sweetest things she’d ever heard.
“Yeah, well… it wasn’t super difficult just needed a lot of carbon and stuff then,” Adaine mimed squishing her hands together, “Just smash it together with a lot of heat and then… diamond,”
“That’s amazing…”
“Thanks…” blushing even deeper, Adaine began intently studying her shoes “like I said, I was going to cut it but… I don’t know… It’s quite beautifully imperfect…” she was silent for a second, wrestling with what she wanted to say, “Like you…”
Fig fought her own blush at that, one thing at a time, turning her attention fully to Adaine.
“You made me a diamond, out of… what? Wood?”
“Well, yeah, I guess. Yes, wood, and… some other stuff,” Adaine ran her hand through her short hair without thinking, but Fig was studying her so closely that she caught it.
“You… your hair?”
“Yeah, is that… I thought it might be a bit weird but I thought it should be a bit personal and-” Adaine was cut off when Fig placed a soft hand on her chin and turned her face towards her, holding her gaze for a second before moving in and pressing a tender kiss on her lips.
“It’s perfect…” She said with a sigh as she pulled away, resting her forehead on Adaine’s, staring at her closed eyes, “thank you,”
Adaine’s eyes flicked open and Fig’s heart felt like it might burst out of her chest as she was held captive by their lustre.
“Happy Birthday,”
“How could it not be?” Fig smiled, “I’ve got you.”