There’s a tap on her shoulder and March turns around, only to have something metal be slipped into her hand.
Stelle’s giving her a curious look, “so, what do you think?”
March tries to smile for her friend’s sake, but she’s sure it comes out more as a grimace. “Please tell me you washed this at least.”
Stelle rolls her eyes but there’s no bite to it if the amused smile on her face is any indicator. “Of course. I got manners, you know.”
She tries not to point out the fact that Stelle’s hobby of pretty much rummaging through every trash can they see doesn’t really live up to that. The fact that she sometimes has the tact of an eraser probably doesn’t help either. Although, Dan Heng would say March isn’t really one to talk.
But she indulges her and March peers at what is it that her friend has given her this time (part curious, part hoping she really washed it) and finds a dented coin. There’s the scratched image of a person with a crown of vines wrapped around their head. It’s one she’s never seen before but that’s unsurprising. Stelle has the uncanny ability to find these random things.
“What do you think?” Stelle repeats, tilting her head and it reminds March of a puppy. “I asked Dan Heng already and he said he doesn’t know.”
“I don’t know why you’d think I would. You’re not the only amnesiac.” March laughs at the displeased look on her friend’s face. She raises the coin and looks at it against the sun’s light. It makes the copper around the edges golden. “It’s a cool one, though.”
“It is,” Stelle nods thoughtfully to herself before making a move to start walking away. “I’m going to see if I can find another one.”
March wishes she won’t because, really, the reputation of the Express kind of relies on their raccoon now (and she had to search up what a raccoon even is!) but she knows there’s no point in trying to talk her out of it. Seriously, even Welt gave up. Still, she grabs onto Stelle’s retreating arm, “w-wait, hold on! You’re not gonna take your coin with you?”
Stelle only shrugs, like she could care less. Like she hasn’t been elbow-deep trying to dig it out of a dumpster. “Hmm, keep it.”
“I don’t know what to do with it?”
“Just keep it.” Stelle waves a hand, “or throw it. Either way, it’s yours now.”
Then just like that, Stelle is gone, and March is holding on to a coin she really has no idea what to do with.
March doesn’t throw it away though and just keeps it in a spare box she had in her room.
---
March supposes that’s how it’d started because now she finds herself constantly receiving random trinkets and whatnots that Stelle finds during her routine dumpster dives in every new planet they visit.
Dan Heng picks up on it at some point, because of course he does, and he makes a comment that it reminds him of a dog excitedly bringing things to its owner. Which is kind of an insulting to say to a friend if it weren’t so accurate that it hurt.
It’s not like she’s encouraging it – if anything, she’s pretty sure she could not look more confused every time she gets one. But Stelle looks so earnest, so pleased with herself when she presents to March another broken keychain or the missing half of a sawed-off lighter that March doesn’t have the heart to refuse her. And the coins, Aeons. At this point, March already has a drawer dedicated to just keeping all these coins Stelle keeps giving her.
Well, she doesn’t really have to keep it, of course. In fact, Stelle almost always expects that March would just throw it right back into the trash can the second she looks away.
But it feels wrong to do so because these are still things Stelle had wanted to share to her for a reason she doesn’t really understand. Yet (?). It’s not like March doesn’t notice how Stelle keeps a lot of the things she finds along their travels so she should do the same, right? Though an explanation from the girl herself would be really nice.
(And March likes making Stelle happy even if they haven’t known each other for that long. It’s the same way she wants to make Dan Heng smile for a change but… stronger, somehow. Like with her memories gone, March wants to fill Stelle’s new ones with laughter.)
Either way, that’s how it’d come to be and March pretty much expects that once they warp to a new planet, she’d be leaving with more things than she’d arrived with.
Yet Stelle’s eyes sparkle with delight every time March walks into her room with an armful of dumpster treasures, so she guesses it’s worth losing desk space, at least.
---
Click!
The camera’s shutter goes off and a second later the polaroid’s spitting out the picture she’d taken of the way the sun’s dipping down in the horizon against the glimmering waters of the harbor. It’s been a while since they’ve been able to warp into a planet with actual oceans in it that aren’t frozen or covered in weird, black, and green sludge she doesn’t even want to know where it’d come from. March still shudders at the thought of it.
She sits back and enjoys the breeze flowing through her hair. Aquetta is one of the calmer planets they’ve visited so far and they’re mainly here to do some supply run for the Express. Pom Pom has their ways of making sure they have a steady source of food, but they can’t forever rely on… wherever they get those from. She’s starting to realize that she should probably give that more thought.
“Hey, there you are.”
Stelle sits next to her on the bench, that familiar amused half-smile on her lips and she’s probably wondering what she’d been doing for the past hour. Seriously. Her and Dan Heng should put more trust in her whenever March chooses to wander off.
“Hey, yourself,” March greets back. She notices the piece of crumpled paper in Stelle’s hand and snorts a laugh, “I see you were dumpster diving again.”
“It’s fun.”
“Uh-huh. Whatever you say.”
Stelle laughs, “bully.” She smoothens out the paper and stares wistfully at it for a moment before handing it over. “I found this letter. It looks like someone just… threw it.”
The ink’s a bit smudge and there’s a stain on one corner that March would really not rather find out what. Still, she can make out the writing somewhat and there’s too many ‘dearest’s and ‘darling’s that it’s some love letter someone probably didn’t have the courage to give.
“Looks like a confession to me,” March remarks, “I guess the sender lost their nerve.”
Stelle nods, “I’ve been seeing a lot like that. Sometimes, there are burnt marks too – like it’d hurt them to think it could still exist if they didn’t set it on fire.”
That makes her a little bummed out. March can’t imagine trying to put her feelings into something only to throw it away at the last second. The others have a point that maybe she shouldn’t be wearing her heart on her sleeve so much, but there’s a reason she’d rather be transparent about everything instead of locking it all away.
She thumbs the unsent letter, and a thought comes to her mind.
“Do you think before the ice, I got one of these?”
Stelle raises a brow, “like a love letter?”
“Yeah!”
“That’s a little ambitious, don’t you think?”
“Hey, don’t be mean!” March lightly punches her on the shoulder and Stelle only laughs. The sound is warm to her ears. “I mean, don’t you wonder if you’ve ever gotten one before too?”
“I guess? I don’t really care about that, though.”
“Hmm,” March leans against her hand and ponders her thoughts towards the sky, “I think if I ever got one, I’d like it to come with donuts.”
Stelle shakes her head, amused, “I think you’re just hungry.”
March laughs, “guilty!”
They sit there in silence for a while but the setting sun against the ocean is such a pretty view that March wants to take a photo to remember it. Stelle only raises her brows in surprise when March pulls her in for a selfie but doesn’t pull away. If anything, she only settles a hand against her waist, and it makes her skin tingle.
She thinks this one is going straight to the photo album. Stelle always looks so pretty when she smiles.
Click!
---
March walks into her room yawning and feeling like she could pass out for like a decade or two. Their latest adventure had involved a lot of running and woof, March is not built for that.
She plops on her bed to start taking off her heels (why she’s even wearing one will forever elude her – the price of looking great) when she notices the envelope next to a box. Wow, she must have been really tired if she’d missed that walking in.
Curious, March opens it to reveal the familiar, clumsy scrawl that could only ever belong to Stelle.
Hey 7,
First off, sorry about entering your room unannounced. I swear I only came in here to put down this letter and the box. You can absolutely ban me from your room in the future if you want. No complaints here.
Second, I noticed that we didn’t really get to explore this planet since the Express had to leave fast and I know you love sightseeing and tasting the food. I’m sorry, you probably feel sad about it. I managed to get this box of glazed donuts I was told was great though (I apologize if it doesn’t, I’m bad at noticing if I’m being haggled), so I hope this could help make your day better. Don’t tell Pom Pom you have them; they’ve been pestering me about souvenirs, and I only had time for one.
Rest well and sweet dreams, we’re up early tomorrow. I think Mr. Yang wanted to have a debriefing with us and you know how Dan Heng gets about being on time.
Sorry, this isn’t a love letter.
P.S. Just remembered I didn’t give you your trash find yet so I’m leaving this glass marble I found. It reminded me of your eyes – I think they’re the prettiest thing about you.
Sure enough, taped to the side of the box is a glass marble – a round, little thing with an amalgamation of pinks and blues inside of it. March holds it up against the light and she can see that there are even glitters floating. It’s a little dull and there are scratches to show its use, but March can see the resemblance.
“I think they’re the prettiest thing about you.”
It feels like wildfire: the way a furious blush suddenly envelops her face and March has to press it against a pillow in an effort of cooling it down. Or stop herself from screaming. Or opening a window and jumping out of the Express because hello?????
It’s no secret that sometimes Stelle would just blurt out whatever she thinks and more times than not, it lands them in some trouble, but this is… this is–!
“A little too much, even for her…” March grumbles against her pillow. Her blush still refuses to leave her face, but she raises her head at some point to look at the donuts. Nothing too crazy – just simple donuts covered in that classic, white glaze but the gesture makes something fuzzy settle in her chest. Ugh. Damn it, Stelle. Why can be such a charmer, sometimes?
March spends the rest of the night staring at the ceiling as she nibbles on the donuts, all the while playing with the marble in her fingers. She doesn’t get any sleep.
----
If Dan Heng points out the bags under her eyes the next day, she just waves him off. But every time so much as Stelle gives her that familiar (adorable) half-smile that makes something warm bloom in her, March has to look away.
---
March can’t really tell when, but something had started to change.
(Well, that’s not entirely true; she has some ideas. She thinks it could have been from that very first coin when Stelle had decided to make this their thing. Or it could have been when Stelle had saved her from the Doomsday Beast. Or all the way back when they’d first found her all alone with no memories of her own and March thought oh, she’s just like me.)
Whenever it had been, March now has to deal with the present problem that she very much might… actually be developing feelings for the woman who weaves stardust between her hands and battles a fate far bigger than any of them can fathom.
March’s not oblivious to the signs – she’s had crushes before like, hello, it’s kind of hard not to when she shares the same train as Himeko. She’s even sure she had a really short one when she first met Asta. There had been a brief moment with Dan Heng but he bullies her so much that all the admiration just turned to fond annoyance. He’s kind of like a brother to her. Not that she’d ever tell him that. Knowing him, he’ll just get flustered in his own weird, quiet way and not talk to her for days.
The point is that March is very much aware of what is going on with her right now, except it’s also foreign in so many ways. It’s like… it’s more intense this time. As if just looking at Stelle could set her whole being on fire and March can’t stand it anymore when Stelle smiles her way because now she has this stupid urge to kiss her.
Oh yeah, did she mention March thinks about kissing her? Because she does. All the time. It’s so annoying. She doesn’t know what to do with it.
It really doesn’t help that for some reason, Stelle is almost always constantly hanging around her to show off some new thing she’d found (or is that how it’d always been and she’s just hyperfocusing now?) because March desperately needs some room to breathe for these newfound feelings.
“Are you okay?” Stelle asks her at one point when March couldn’t stop blushing every time the other so much as brushed her arm against hers, “you look really red right now.”
“I-I’m fine!” March squeaks and she feels like dying, “really, it’s probably just the heat, you know? Forgot to put sunscreen–“
She shuts off her mouth because Stelle’s already pulling off her glove with her teeth (really? Really?) and she’s pressing the back of her hand to her burning forehead. There’s a frown on her lips and a confused furrow to her brows. March gets another one of those urges of kissing it away. Oh, Aeons.
“You feel warm. Do you have a fever? Are you feeling well?” Then Stelle’s gently carding her fingers through her bangs before caressing her cheek, “you know I’d walk you back to the hotel if you aren’t.”
There’s so much concern swimming in those liquid gold that March just absolutely melts. She’s sure her heart might actually burst out of her chest with how hard it’s beating.
In a moment of bravery, she holds Stelle’s hand and manages a smile. “I’m fine, really. We can continue.”
Stelle clearly doesn’t believe her and, not for the first time, March wishes she’s allowed to just kiss her worries away. Still, she relents but doesn’t let go of her hand.
Later, Stelle finds a frayed ribbon the color of dull red in a trash can they’ve passed by and, once she’d determined it’s clean enough, loosely ties it around one of her wrists. Mainly because she thinks the red looks nice against the blue of her dress and it makes her prettier.
March really, really wants to kiss her.
---
Naturally, she goes to Dan Heng about it.
For how much Stelle tends to wander off on her own, it’s actually kind of hard to convince her that March needs to do something with Dan Heng that only the two of them could do and, really, there’s no need for her to come and she can just spend the rest of the day inserting herself into random conversations or stealing mail. Or whatever it is that she does that doesn’t involve going through trash.
March actually doesn’t really know what. Huh.
Stelle gives her a curious (and slightly worried) look but thankfully lets it go. She only bites her lip as if she wants to say something before shaking her head. Stelle waves her phone. “Okay but call me if anything happens. I’ll come over immediately.”
“Psh, we’ll be fine!” March pulls Dan Heng by his arm, “plus, I got Dan with me!”
“We’ll stay in touch,” he promises.
“Thank you.” Stelle looks at her again and, after a whole two seconds of silence, reaches out to squeeze her hand. “Be careful.”
Oh, Aeons. March wants to kiss her so bad.
The thought sends another embarrassing blush to her cheeks, and she can only muster a muted nod before she’s practically tearing through the cobblestone streets with an annoyed Dan Heng in tow. Thankfully he’d gotten used enough to her antics already that he waits until they’re in a secluded alleyway before crossing his arms.
“March, what are you doing–“
“IthinkIlikeStelleandI’mfreakingoutbecauseIdon’tknowwhattodo!”
He blinks, surprised, “I failed to understand what you just said right now.”
March groans and sinks to a crouch, hiding her reddening face against her knees. She thinks she might actually just combust out of nowhere. Oh, Aeons. Why did anyone ever free her from that ice?
“I think–“ March breathes in deep, “I think I… like Stelle. Like, really like.” March looks up to where Dan Heng is staring at her like he doesn’t know why he’s here, “please help me, Dan. I don’t know what to do!”
“I am genuinely confused as to why you think I could help.”
“Because you’re my best friend!”
He grimaces but doesn’t refute the statement and March thinks that’s a win in her book. He sighs and also crouches to her level. “Is this why you’ve been acting odd these past few days?”
“… Yeah.”
“Then why not just tell her and get on with it? Save you the trouble?”
“Eugh,” March groans, “you don’t get it–“
“I really don’t.”
“–I just can’t go up to her and confess! What if she doesn’t feel the same way? Do I even want to have a something with her? What if I’m just being weird?” March buries her face again in her knees, “I wish she never gave me those things because now everything’s confusing. This is all her fault, really.”
Dan Heng is silent for a while and then there’s a hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently and March looks up. He looks so out of depth it’s kind of funny, but there’s a seriousness in his eyes.
“March,” he begins, “I know we haven’t met Stelle for that long, but I know she cares about you. Would it be so bad to take that risk?”
“I-I don’t know,” March picks on the material of her shoes, “I guess I’m just scared, Dan.”
“You don’t have to be.” He smiles, a little awkward. A little unused to it, but March feels some of the tension leave her. “But whatever you decide to do, know that I always have your back.”
March will hug him if she knows he won’t just push her away but he squeezes the hand on her shoulder, “thank you.”
“Now come on. We can’t put this mission on hold just because you’re too busy having a gay panic over your crush.”
“Ugh, please don’t make me regret telling you.”
---
Planet Estrade is a cold one but at least it’s not freezing like Belobog.
Still, March is once again regretting the fact that she’s as clumsy as she is. If she isn’t then maybe she won’t be sitting right in front of the meager campfire they’d managed to get going and hoping she won’t catch hypothermia because, somehow, she tripped herself directly into a river and got her only jacket soaking wet. Even Dan Heng couldn’t help the surprised laughter and March’s too busy being embarrassed to kick him in the shins for it.
She sighs. At least he made a campfire for her clothes to dry on and her to stay warm before retreating to the surrounding woods to try and figure out where they’re supposed to be going. Why he’s even doing that so close to night fall, March is too cold to try and figure out.
March is staring forlornly at the fire and pondering the choices she’d made in life that led her to this moment when there’s a rustle of footsteps behind her. Before she could turn, there’s the weight of something being placed around her shoulders and followed by the distinct scent of something earthy with hints of electricity.
“Figured you’re probably freezing right now,” Stelle remarks, sitting next to her on the ground, “still funny, by the way.”
“I’m glad you find enjoyment in my misery.” March mutters but pulls the jacket tighter around herself. She had been shaking, but inside Stelle’s trademark jacket she suddenly feels scorching hot. Yet, it’s too comfortable for her to shake it off and everything just smells like her. “Thank you. You didn’t have to.”
“Yeah, I do,” Stelle shrugs, “it’s you.”
March doesn’t know what to say to that, but she does try to hide her blush underneath the collar of the jacket (which doesn’t really help). Seriously, she really needs to talk to Stelle about saying things like that as if it doesn’t hold the weight it does. To March, at least. Not when she can’t do the things she wants to.
This girl is going to drive her crazy one day.
Stelle grabs a random stick off the ground and starts poking the fire. “What were you doing by that river, anyway?”
“Oh!” The thought had slipped from her mind, and she leans forward to dig through the pocket of her still, regrettably, wet jacket. Stelle’s hands come up to make sure the jacket doesn’t slip off March’s shoulders and she tries not to lean against the touch. “I was trying to get this rock!”
“A rock?”
“Yes, isn’t it so pretty?” She presents it to Stelle with a hint of pride. She’d only been half-sure when she’d seen it but the hint of white shimmering underneath the water was almost unmistakable. A Howlite. She hadn’t been expecting to see one as they travel through this planet, but March knew she just had to get it.
Stelle appraises the rock and smiles, “it is pretty. Is this really what you sacrificed your clothes for?”
“Oh, you are one to talk Ms. Trash Panda.” March huffs, but returns the smile, “I just wanted you to have it.”
Stelle looks at her, surprised, “me?”
“Yeah! I mean, you’re always giving me things. I just wanted to give you something in return.”
“I’m not sure how all those trashes could compare to a literal gem.”
March rolls her eyes, “just keep it, you goof.”
Stelle looks at the rock again and there’s this glimmer of something in her eyes before she gives her a genuine, fond smile. She keeps the rock in one of her pockets with one, last pat against it. “Thank you.”
Stelle’s just in her white shirt now and she looks so handsome against the flickering flames of the campfire and for a moment it feels like it’s just the two of them in the middle of nowhere. It’s like all March could see is the girl next to her with that half-smile that sends butterflies flying like crazy in her stomach and, Aeons, why did she have to be so perfect?
She doesn’t know how, or why, or what even, but she’d somehow gathered the courage to move closer and suddenly there’s this something. March sees it in the curious arch of Stelle’s brow, but she doesn’t move away – only sitting there and waiting for what it is that March wants to do, and she wants so much that it’s driving her insane.
Above all, though, March just really wants to know what it’s like to kiss her.
There’s a moment – a glance – where she’s looking into the depths of gold and asking is this okay? Is this going to break something? and Stelle only responds by being the one to finally close that distance.
Fireworks don’t quite explode in the background, but her chest does expand to near bursting, this overwhelming sense of finally as she feels a hand brush her cheek before settling at the back of her neck. Stelle’s lips are a little chapped and she tastes vaguely like the peanuts she’d eaten on the road but March thinks there’s nothing more perfect in the entire universe right now.
She can’t help it: she wraps her arms around Stelle’s shoulders and, really, she’d only been meaning to steady herself but it’s like something shifts and the other’s touch becomes a bit more possessive. A hand moves to grip her waist to pull her closer and now March is gasping into the other’s mouth, surprised and caught off-guard, and it only spurs Stelle on. The jacket slips off her shoulders and neither pays attention to it, not when skins are suddenly so hot to the touch. The kiss becomes two, three, four, and bruising enough that March’s head starts to spin. Or maybe that’s the fact that Stelle had managed to flip them so she can push her against the grass.
Why hadn’t March done this earlier? Not when it’s steadily becoming obvious that kissing Stelle is a growing addiction that she won’t be able to crawl out of? Not when Stelle bites down on her lip just hard enough that it has March raking blunt nails across her scalp and stifling down a moan. She could probably spend an eternity just being kissed on the ground.
It’s only the sound of something rustling in a nearby bush that sense finally comes back to her and March pushes against Stelle’s shoulders. Which isn’t really an easy feat because she is ridiculously strong and very insistent on kissing her again.
“W-Wait–“ March gasps and squirms when Stelle goes to start trailing kisses down her jawline instead, “wait hold on, Dan Heng could be back anytime–“
That does the trick and Stelle finally pulls away, out of breath and looking so thoroughly kissed that March can’t help but feel proud of that. Still, there’s this dark look in her eyes that makes something warm pool in March’s stomach. Stelle presses a thumb against her lower lip, “later? Later is alright?”
“Y-Yeah,” honestly, forever is preferable but she won’t rush, “later is so alright.”
Then, a grin so blinding overtakes her face and Stelle kisses her again. Short and sweet. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.”
“What?” March scoffs, “you mean you’ve been feeling the same way this entire time? I was going insane!”
Stelle shrugs and helps her up, holding on to her hands with a newfound fondness that it makes her chest melt. “I wanted to be sure.”
“I literally couldn’t look you in the eye in the past month.”
“That could be anything,” Stelle smiles, amused, “you’re weird sometimes, you know.”
March rolls her eyes and, just because she can do it now, leans in to kiss her again (oh Aeons, she can actually do that now). “You’re lucky I like you.”
Stelle only hums against her lips, pleased, “I really am.”