Flurry Before The Blizzard

Arcturia huh? I’ve never had the chance to visit it as it's on the western side of the continent and I’ve lived on the east my whole life. “Oh hell yeah! Arcturia, finally somewhere of different temperature rather than this sweltering sea. And with my fire magic, I won’t need to worry about packing too many jackets. Malik, you better make sure to pack many layers of jackets or else you will turn into a malicicle, get it? Like Malik, and icicle.” I don't get it.

“Well, now that you all know your mission duties, we all have to prepare, we will leave for our missions in approximately one week. So have fun, spar, train, or do whatever you want before then, but make sure by the time that week is done, that you all are ready to go, failure is not an option.” Raza stood there tall, empowering us all with confidence. Zain stands up gathering our attention. “I think since we have a week before we all go on our missions for god knows how long, how about some of us go to Sonotona City and check out the shopping center there. I’m thinking, Me, Yasmin, Aria, and Malik! We are going to Sonotona today!” Zain and Yasmin walk away and begin to cackle albeit very faintly but I could tell something is up. “You two have a few hours to get ready, also Aria can you come with me very quickly?” As I see Yasmin pull Aria aside for something, I finish up my breakfast. “So Malik, are you scared?” Amara tunes back into reality after drifting off. “No, not really, since this is mainly reconnaissance there isn't really any fear.” Azura chimes in. “Well that's in the event no devils show up to stop you, however, those things are strong and aren’t willing to step down so easily! When we came to save you back at the catacombs, we fought hard, his aura he emitted was unfathomable.” She's right, this mission won’t be a walk in the park, especially if we run into Salazor. I proceed to get up and go to my room to get ready for Sonotona with Zain, Yasmin, and Aria.

When it’s time for me to meet up with the others at the Sonotona shopping center, I don’t notice anyone else except for Aria and Me. “Hey Aria! What happened to Zain and Yasmin? Are they running late?” “Turns out they both are sick so I guess it's just us today.” Something seems off, but I’m not going to mind it today is going to be fun. We decided to go to Arcade first as a way for us to get us into the mood. “Hey Malik! Can we go to the fighting games? I love them!” She leads me to a fighting game called Road Puncher. As we pick our characters she starts blushing and stops to pull out a camera with film and proceeds to take a picture of the both of us. “I-I hope you don't mind, I wanted to enjoy this moment forever, especially with the mission coming soon.” I assure her it's fine and we start playing the fighting games. As time goes on, we try different characters, and in almost every single game, I get defeated and humiliated. Aria is like a master at this game. “I loved this game series growing up! Sorry if it's hard to go up against me.” Aria said as she chuckled and proceeded to combo me into oblivion.

Next up we went to the crane games, her eyes were mesmerized at all the different items to win, candy, plushies, figurines, it was all here. She proceeded to direct me to this crane game full of fluffy little pet plush toys. I offered to go first and on my first try I won this aquamarine colored puppy dog plushie. As I grab the toy, I decide to give the toy to Aria as a gift. “Sorry if it's not your favorite color, but take this as a token of my appreciation.” Aria’s smile grows from ear to ear with her blush as well. She thanks me and holds onto the toy hugging it greatly. As our time at the crane games grew, the sun began to set. As unfortunate as it was that this amazing day was ending, we left that crane arcade up to our shoulders in toys and wallets emptier than the desert, but the smile on Aria’s face made it worthwhile. We got back home to see Zain and Yasmin at the entrance with mischievous grins on their faces.

“Soo, how was your date?” Yasmin said wittingly. “Yeah, it's a shame that we couldn’t join you all, for reasons that we will not be going into detail about as they are not important.” It was pretty obvious looking at their expressions that this whole thing was planned that those two will call out last minute to make today like an impromptu date. I began to get flustered as well solely due to the fact that I never even saw it like that, did she? “No no no, you guys got it all wrong, it wasn’t a da-” “The date was amazing!” Aria interrupted me mid sentence, so she did see this as a date, what is wrong with me, I did too, and I completely said it wasn’t, how can I be such an idiot. I look to Aria to see her telling Zain and Yasmin how amazing today was with the biggest smile I’ve ever seen, Nyla was right. I was scared that she saw me as a friend, but I guess she sees me as more, so I shouldn’t hide it anymore, as a promise to myself, starting right here and right now! I will make sure that after our mission is done and we are all back safe and sound, I will confess to Aria!

As Aria is finishing up her summarization of our day today, she pulls my arm over to her and leads me to the hallway inside the headquarters. “Malik, thank you for this amazing date, even though it was planned by Zain and Yasmin, it was one that I will never forget.” She hugs me and wishes me good night as she goes off to her room. I guess I should be going to bed as well, the big day is coming up and I gotta train, in one week, me, Kael, and Captain Raza, make way to Arcturia!