A week before Ash's birthday, Deen finally finished the painting. Ryu excitedly volunteered to pack the painting in the day of his birthday and for the mean time, its in Deen's studio left to dry. She also started to paint the other commissions left and a few days later, she decided to go out alone and take a breather. She's been keeping herself in both her own and the school's studio for days now. She doesn't want to become a caveman just yet so she went for a walk at an eco park twenty minutes away from her place. She didn't call any of her friends to join her, among their friend group, she's the only one who loves to have some alone time and she loves walking alone to keep things out of her mind. She loves the silence that only the noise from the people around her can break whenever she's out like this. If you're going to ask her, the times like that is the only times that she can say that she likes the crowd. People mind their own business and never bother to look up, she can walk without people looking at her, she always feel invisible like this and she loves it.
A wallflower, that's what her peer used to call her. She always stay out of sight of everyone and always prefer working alone. She's the type to not attend college parties and make excuses to avoid social gatherings of their schools. She's been living like a shadow in her freshman years, letting Ryu handle all of her deals and quite thankful that Jrey found her at the art building's rooftop a few months later when their semester started and decided to adopt her and intruduced her to Astra who liked her instantly and made their group a trio before Tungsten and Astra got together when they're sophomore and made their group a quartet with the occasionally addition of Ryu. She would rather stay as a wallflower if you ask her but that didn't happen ever since her professors discovered her talents and made her come and participate to every exhibit for their school and from then, she started talking to her classmates and somewhat made a circleof friends but she never really hang out with anyone outside of their school unless its Ryu and the others. She would love to continue thinking about the past if only the sky didn't get dark and is about to rain. She's about to head home but she noticed a new establishment at the other side of the road, she's not ready to go home yet so she decided to cross the road and entered the new cafe.
She instantly met the strong smell of coffee that is being brewed when she opened the door and can also smell the new baked cookies that one of the staff is arranging in the counter. The cashier happily greeted her and asked for her orders not letting the smile fall from her face. She automatically ordered a black coffee and a strawberry shortcake with a candle. The cashier smiled and greeted her a happy birthday and even offered a free cookie but she declined and went at the farthest corner that is quite hidden by the plants after paying. She only get to check the cafe's interior when she's seated and she can say that it's cute. There are plants everywhere and fairy lights, small potted succulents at the walls and cute cacti in every table with a glass that has moving lights in the inside making it look like there are fireflies caught inside.
Her orders came after a while with the candle already lit and the waiter singing a happy birthday for her.
It's not her birthday.
Her birthday is still a few months away but she don't have the heart to tell the waiter that it's not her birthday yet. They even gave the cookie she declined a while ago. She thanks the waiter and leaned at the chair with the coffee in her hand. She took a sip and looks outside to watch the people running for shelter when the drizzle starts. The sky turned darker than the last time she checked, its like the weather wants to cry with her. She put the coffee back at the table and subtly clutched her aching chest and willed her tears to not fall. She forgot what today is, she's been busy and never checked the date, she never noticed how the days passes but now that she mindlessly read the receipt a while ago, she finally understands why she's been dissociating a lot lately and even had a panic attack the other day. Guess no matter how busy she can be and forget the time, her body and mind still remembers the days that she once considered special. Her eyes turned glossy and before a tear could fall in her eyes, someone reached for it and wiped her cheeks. She's startled and turned her head so fast that she almost got a whiplash.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to startle you." A guy covered from head to toe said fastly with his hands raised. "Zirrius?" she asks and Zirrius nods his head for a confirmation. "I'm sorry. Its just that I saw you and you look so sad. I can't help myself but to reach for your tear when its about to fall." He said softly as he sits in front of her.
He looks at the foods on the table before looking at Deen sympathetically and gave her a smile. Deen can't meet him in the eye so she looked down and noticed the candle wax that is already melted and formed a new shape in the middle of the cake, she winced and reached for the spoon to remove the wax, grimacing when the cake design is already ruined and she didn't even get to admire it. "Did your date stood you up? Want me to beat him up?" Zirrius said softly and reached for Deen's hands to intertwine them. She let out a chuckle and shook her head. "Its my parent's birthday today. Kinda weird for me but they share the same birth date and that's today." She whispers, not entirely sure if Zirrius heard her but the soft "oh" that he lets out indicates that he heard her. "Is that why you're sad? Because they didn't make it? I'm sure that there must be an emergency or something so I hope that you'll get to celebrate it later." Deen's only reply is a smile and gave a squeeze at their intertwined hands.
If only that's the case.
"Want to eat this cake with me?" She offered instead of telling him the truth. She's not really in the mood for a story telling and she was never ready to talk about her past with anyone even with the girls. Zirrius gave her a smile, "Let me go and ask for another spoon and buy some coffee. Do you want me to buy another one?" he asks as he points at her already cold coffee. "Its fine. I can drink cold coffee." She said and Zirrius gave her a nod before going to the counter.
The two of them ate the cake silently with a few jokes from Zirrius to lift Deen's mood. And when they're done, Zirrius made her drink a whole glass of water to avoid sore throat. The rain has stopped by then so Zirrius invited Deen to go for a walk at the park, she's been there already and is not in the mood for another walking but still agreed for her stay out longer. She's been trying to avoid drinking lately and going home now means that she wouldn't be able to resist the temptation of grabbing a bottle of whatever alcohol she hid in her drawers. She's not alcoholic, she's really not, its just that she found a comfort in drinking to the point of passing out whenever she gets lonely or she feels empty and its gotten so bad that Ryu scolded her for drinking too much. And the only thing that's keeping her from going home and drinking instead of staying out is the promise she made with Ryu that she wont drown herself in alcohol and Ryu wouldn't send her to a rehab even though she doesn't need to be sent there, Ryu's just overreacting.
There's only a few people in the park when they get there due to the previous rain and its already dark leaving the few lamp posts to light their ways so Zirrius took of his mask leaving him with only his cap on to cover his face. "At last! Fresh air." He said exaggeratedly and stretches his arms in front of the man made lake. Deen chuckles at his action and sat at the railing of the small bridge where they're standing. "Thank you for the company today by the way. I hope you didn't cancel any plans because I was lonely and shit." She said as she crosses her arms and looks everywhere but Zirrius. "I love spending time with you." He simply said and sat at the railing in front of Deen, copying her action. "It's also a nice change of scenery, you know? Our usual meetings always in the night time and in an exhibit, this is the first time that we met in the daylight and get to spend the day longer. I'm calling this our first date." He said cheekily that made Deen laugh. "A date in a cafe is way too cliche for me. I'd rather call our first meeting at the gallery our first date." She answers. "Isn't a blind date still a cliche?" Zirrius teases. "It's not a blind date if we never texted and the meet up is a coincidence." Deen grins at him. "Don't worry, love. None of this is a coincidence." Zirrius suddenly sang that made Deen blink up at him, recognizing the verse in one of their songs that she happen to hear at Astra's phone when she was checking out the duo. "Because we're the two who found our destiny?" She continues. Reciting the line instead of singing it back. Zirrius suddenly became serious at this, the playful ambiance being gone because of her.
"I know who you are and I'm not going to tell people about meeting you in person." She said hurriedly, hoping that Zirrius won't get mad at her. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I swear I didn't know who you are at first, I only got to know you when one of my friends got excited over the painting and introduced you and Ash to me." Zirrius chuckled at this and went in front of her. He held her face with both hands and made her look at him in the eyes before speaking, "I was aware that you don't know me at first and believe me, I can recognize a person if they're a fan or not. I'm sorry for being serious with you just now, I just thought that you would remain oblivious about me for a bit longer but I guess commissioning you for that painting made it impossible for you to not know about me."
"You were almost successful, if only you didn't drop that Z on Ryu and too bad for you, my friends are your fans. I actually heard your songs a lot because they always play it." She said as she reaches for one of Zirrius' hand in her face. "Is that why you know the lyrics? Tell me, are you secretly a fan?" He teases. Deen rolled her eyes at him and pushed him back slowly. "I wanna go home." She said before walking away and Zirrius followed her with a laugh. "Oh, did I just found a new in denial fan in this starless night?" He continued teasing her. "I was about to become one but I changed my mind when you opened that damn mouth. Even go as far as admitting that you had me at your voice but nahhh. You suck." She said as she walks faster leaving Zirrius but he still caught up in no time with his long legs. He put his arm in her shoulder and pulled her closer to him leaving no space in between them. "No one can resist my voice. I can sing to you if you want?" He said with a wink that made Deen groan. "I swear I'll get back to you with all this teasing." She murmurs that only made Zirrius laugh and playfully sang a few verses of their songs to her.
Deen won't admit it but she's thankful that she met Zirrius. She's glad that Zirrius found her in that cafe and stayed with her, glad that he invited her for a walk.
They didn't noticed it but the moon's actually peeking at them, using the clouds to cover its bright light while they pushes each other and laughing loudly when one of them almost tripped.
They also didn't noticed it but Fate has been watching them, hiding from the willow tree near the bridge where they momentarily stopped, smiling at how the two remained oblivious at how their fate has changed from that night, finally binding the thread that the stars has made.