62: Who Cracks First?

“I’m so tired,” Nyssa splayed out like a starfish washed up on a beach. Her chest rose and fell as Celeste sat down beside her, also out of breath after helping the Class One students. Having extricated themselves before the Class One students could surround them once more, they returned to their original place on the riverbank with their snacks and drinks beside them.

“Are you doing okay?” Celeste leaned over and cupped Nyssa’s face. “You exerted yourself quite a bit earlier, didn’t you?”

“It was fun though, so I’m not fussed about it, it was worth it,” Nyssa rolled over, resting her chin onto Celeste’s hand. She looked up to meet Celeste’s eyes and gave a small smile. “You looked like you were having fun though, and we got snacks, so are you doing okay?”

After freezing up for a second, Celeste broke into a splendid smile as she squished Nyssa’s cheeks. She leaned down as a few teasing laughs slipped through her lips. “Why wouldn’t I be doing well with you here?”

Covering her mouth and breaking into full on laughter as a pink tinge appeared on Nyssa’s cheeks, she changed the subject before Nyssa could react. “Want some snacks? We got a lot, so we can start dipping into it right now.”

“G-Give me something salty...” Nyssa mumbled, recovering from Celeste’s sneak attack. She pushed herself up before leaning against Celeste. Basking in the warmth, she closed her eyes while Celeste rifled through their pile to pick out something for her. As a yawn slipped through her lips, she cracked her eyes open and tried her best to blink her sleepiness away. “Can you also check if there are any drinks with some caffeine in them?”

“There’s a can of caffeinated tea right here, are you sure you want it?” Celeste offered a bag of pretzels while tapping the can of tea. “It won’t mess with your sleep will it?”

“It won’t, caffeine helps but wears off pretty quickly... and probably can be ignored if it really comes down to it for me,” Nyssa reached over and cracked the can of tea open. Downing a couple mouthfuls, she thanked Celeste before sitting back upright—unaware of the slight crestfallen expression flitting across Celeste’s face.

“That’s impressive, I’m weak to caffeine, makes my heart race a little too much which causes my powers to be harder to control,” Celeste sighed while pulling open the bag of pretzels. After stealing a couple of pretzels out of it, she handed it to Nyssa. “What now? Do you want to keep watching? Or do you want to go back to our rooms? Or go somewhere else while staying out?”

“I’m fine with anything,” Nyssa munched on a pretzel. “Sorry to hear about your weakness to caffeine though, if you ever have something caffeinated, feel free to give it to me.”

“Thank you, thank you, I’ll keep that in mind,” Celeste reached over and took a small bag of crackers from their mound of snacks. “I’m also fine with anything, so you decide.”

“No... you,” Nyssa retorted.

“No, you choose,” Celeste countered with a grin while opening the small bag of crackers. “Wait... these are meant for soup aren’t they?”

“They are, but they’re still pretty good even without soup,” Nyssa shrugged before another “No, you choose” left her mouth. Embroiled in a temporary war over who would choose, she and Celeste kept going until one of them cracked.

As for who cracked... It was Nyssa.

“Fine... how about we just stay? I don’t really feel like participating more in this race event, but I want to see the fireworks show that you mentioned...” She washed down the dryness of another pretzel with a couple mouthfuls of tea. Moment by moment, awareness returned to her eyes as she relaxed her eyebrows. “I’m truly fine with whatever though.”

“We can stay, don’t worry, I want to see the fireworks too,” Celeste reassured, wrapping an arm around Nyssa’s waist. With her scalp tingling from glances coming from the Class One Upperclassmen, she leaned in close to whisper, “I think we should scoot a little further down though. You, somehow, managed to not divulge your identity earlier, but they’re still giving us looks. The group to our right relocated to the opposite riverbank already too, anyway.”

“Smart idea, smart idea,” Nyssa began picking up their bags of snacks. “Ryker will probably nuke the upperclassmen when he passes by in the opposite direction too... so it’ll be good to get out of the blast radius.”

After a murmur of agreement left Celeste’s mouth, the two moved a little farther from the upperclassmen. Their new position, after relocating their little setup, had moved a little further up the riverbank—away from the water’s edge. They sat leaning against the low stone wall separating the riverbank from the paved walking path. Between several of the floating paper lamps, their spot had a cozy blanket of warm lighting without being too visible or bright.

A few of the trailing racers paddled by them. Though gliding through the water at a pace a tad quicker than the leaders who had passed a couple minutes prior, the racers didn’t even glance over at Nyssa and Celeste.

Though, their attention being focused on ‘not dying from superpowered, heavy artillery bombardment’ did help with the concealment...

And, so, Nyssa and Celeste sat together under the night sky, using each other for warmth as the race carried on. On the way back down the river, the commentators started commenting on the finer details, their broad commentary shifting to a play-by-play.

“And Olivia goes through! Unscathed as Alecto swats off a huge column of fire like it's nothing!”

“Well, for a demon like her! It might as well be nothing! We can’t forget where demons come from after all!”

“Definitely true- OH MY GOD! Is that Ryker, rocketing through the air? He’s completely abandoned his raft as Electra becomes the sole person propelling it forward, will she be pushed back by the riverbank participants?”

“What is Ryker doing? He’s going to get disqualified at this rate!”

“Only if he touches down on the ground! He’s been talking about this technique at length, where he detonates layers of skin to propel himself through the air! Looks like its finally been mastered!”

“Mastered it, he has! Is it a bird? A plane? No! It’s Ryker, gliding through the sky like a majestic ballistic missile! He’s coming up on a group of spectators and... BOOM! HE’S DETONATED BOTH LEGS! THAT’S A REAL COUNTERATTACK!”

“THAT ONE HAS GOT TO HURT! THAT ENTIRE GROUP OF PEOPLE IS GOING TO BE SETTING OFF THE FIRE ALARMS FOR THE NEXT WEEK WITH HOW MUCH THEY’RE SMOKING!”

Ryker’s antics... did not end in much progress though as he flung himself back to the raft—now a little further behind Olivia. His and Electra’s subsequent frantic push forward towards Olivia... did not bear fruit as they finished second in the overall race, gliding across the line just a few seconds behind Olivia.

Thus, after a quick medal scene where cheers rang out all along the riverbank—loud enough to draw attention from everywhere inside the institute—the celebratory fireworks began in earnest.

---

For a certain two girls, the results didn’t matter much. In fact, once the ceremony ended, their faces broke into wide smiles as the fireworks began launching into the sky above. They sat in a comforting silence, arms and legs brushing against each other as the sound of fireworks filled their ears.

After a couple minutes though, Celeste, staring into the sky lit up by fireworks, cracked the seal on her mouth open. “I... have something to say.”

Her heart pounded. Whether from nervousness or from the dazzling explosion of each firework, she didn’t care. Before Nyssa could ask “What’s up?” she decided to throw it out there. “I... like you a lot. I think I love you...”

Another round of fireworks rocked the pair’s eardrums.

Nyssa, after a moment of stunned silence, slid her hand over and onto Celeste’s. “I... think I love you too.”