Rose was considering the absolute best selfie idea, and had been for the past three times. Now that Juleka’s ‘curse’ was over, they had been making up for lost time with a whole gob of selfies. And Rose knew what she should do to spice them. She just wasn’t sure if that was physically possible, without notifying Juleka beforehand.
Rose really wanted a selfie with a surprise cheek kiss, like they do in the animes, but...
See, Rose was considerably shorter than Juleka, and even on tiptoes, Juleka was still a head taller than her. Rose was worried that her mouth might not even reach Juleka's face, so... Yeah. She hadn't tried yet.
As her inner thoughts rumbled along, Rose posed for picture after picture, holding up a peace sign for one, winking for another. Juleka also got more cutesy, something most people... didn't usually see. One photo had Juleka cross eyed, bangs pushed out of her face. Another had her fingers pretending to be fangs. (Okay, so maybe Rose's perceptions of 'cute' were skewed, sue her.)
And so they giggled, sitting in the park, on the grass. They were probably getting grass stains galore, but neither of them cared. It was sunny and bright and cheerful, and just warm enough. They could take so many pictures now, keep so many memories.
The next memory they kept was rather unexpected, for Rose, at least.
The next memory had the sun shining, grass green, and the day much, much cooler than the cheek Juleka had just kissed. This wasn't surprising, considering said face was a very flammable object and had just burst into an inferno. It was very random, and had nothing to do with Juleka's lips, Rose informed her brain. It did not believe her.
A beat passed between them. All of the color on Juleka's face had seemingly been transferred to Rose's, based on appearances.
"Uhm... sorry, I'll just," Juleka swallowed. "I'll just go, I made it awkward. Sorry."
Juleka began to stand up, but Rose was having none of that. "Why? We aren't done taking selfies!" She made an attempt to divert the awkwardness, which had indeed arisen. Rose kind of felt floaty, which she considered might be bad, but might also just be a side effect of the possibility that Juleka could like her back.
And now all of the previous blood Juleka's face had given Rose's was transferred back, and Juleka was now the complexion of the average tomato. All in all, Rose took this to be a good sign.
And now Rose's plan might just need some tweaking, considering Juleka had already carried it out with such precision.
Lips it was, then.
Rose held up the camera again, tugged Juleka closer with a "Come here, you," and as the flash went off, smooched her right on the mouth. And then she kept going because, hey, Juleka had initiated first, and really, the attempts to pick her up and get even closer seemed to be a pretty good indicator of positive response.
Rose had kissed a few people before, but it had never felt like this. It's was as if everything had dissolved, leaving only the two of them. She felt like she was floating, she could feel Juleka's hands in her hair, her heart racing.
Rose had kissed only twice before, once when she was ten (which she didn't count) and once when she was thirteen, during truth or dare. This felt significantly different from the other times. Perhaps it was because she liked this person. Perhaps it was because this person liked her back. Or rather, licked her back.
It was probably due to the licking, Rose decided. This time, she could feel pressure of Juleka's elbows on her shoulders, drawing her near. She could feel the pressure of Juleka's ribs saying 'this will soon be not physiologically possible' while her head crane forward, nearer, nearer. She could taste the mint of Juleka's gum in her mouth, and, with a little exploration-- yup, there it was-- she could taste the gum directly. And while Rose could definitely feel Juleka's fingers in her hair, Juleka could probably feel the yanking on her own hair much more vividly. (Whoopsie, Rose, she chided herself. Be more gentle.) The kissing slowly became calmer, complete with breathing breaks. Bah, who needs oxygen anyway? (Juleka did, but wasn't too happy about it.) It settled down into tiny, speedy pecks, and eventually into no kissing. By the end, Rose had Juleka sitting on her lap, sideways, which looked rather silly because of their heights.
It probably did not last as long as Rose's mind says it did (the sun was roughly in the same position, so hours could not have passed), but even so, when they did separate, the people around them were looking oh-so-casually in any direction but theirs. Rose felt a little bit bad for that, but mostly like she would probably fly away.
"So..." Juleka mumbled, now even more tomato-esque.
"So." Rose said.
"So?"
"So!"
"Pfft. So...what just happened?"
"I smooched you," Rose stated, in a tone as matter-of-fact as she could make it.
"Yes," Juleka laughed quietly. "Yes, you did."
"But you smooched me first, so it was alright... right?" Rose was a bit worried. Every sign had said yes, but what if she had been misinterpreting things?
"Um, yeah, it was more than alright."
"Okay... good."
Rose just loved awkward silences, they were just dandy.
"So. Um. If we were to have an. Um. More kissy type of, uh, friendship... like officially... I would be okay with that." Juleka couldn't stop nerves from getting into her voice, but at least she had said it.
"Oh."
"Oh? What does oh mean?" Juleka began braiding and unbraiding a strand of hair, one of her (numerous) nervous habits.
"'Oh' means that I think we would make excellent smoochyfriends, but that I also think that there may be a better word for that." Rose meant girlfriends.
"Uh... kissybuddies?" Rose laughed, loud and fast, followed by Juleka's quiet, delayed laughter.
"No, silly. Girlfriends."
"Heh. Okay." For what felt like the millionth time that day, Juleka grinned.