Valentine's Day Special (Part One)

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This chapter consists of the events happening between Chapters 45 and 46. This is simply for fun and not a chapter necessary to the story. If you only want the main story, please skip this entry. Otherwise, thank you for reading!

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--Dani's Perspective--

"You don't know what to get him for Valentine's Day?" Mandi asked me. She leaned her chin onto her hands while sitting against the table.

"N-No. Am I supposed to know?" I asked her. Mandi shook her head.

"Well, not really... but what do you want to get for him?" Mandi replied to my question. She stretched her body and stared at her fingertips.

I sat puzzled in my hospital bed, wiggling my fingers and toes to make sure they had enough blood circulating through them.

"I'm not entirely sure... what do guys like?" I turned to Mandi with another question, but not even she knew.

"Like I'd know. I don't have guy parts, I'm not really sure what goes through their minds... maybe you could get Sky some sort of weapon that would instantly kill people?" Mandi suggested.

"Yeah... not so sure about that one. I don't think he likes killing people, Mandi." I told her with a pout. Her eyes wandered off past my head and deep into the reaches of the window's vision.

"Clothing? After all, we all woke up with the same boring, brown cloth covering our bodies. Some clothing to give us character would probably be the best option, right?" I nodded at her suggestion, but it still didn't feel right.

"He's not very vocal..." As soon as I said that, I remembered him walking out of my room, telling me that he liked me and would protect me. I got bright red, feeling the heat on my face. At least I didn't have frostbite there.

"I didn't think you could reach that shade of pink. Spill it, what got you that embarrassed?" Mandi pushed her face close to mine with her hands leaning against the hospital bed.

"N-Nothing! I was just remembering something he said to me..." I felt the heat flare up in my cheeks again.

"Right... well, it sounds like you know what he'd like... I bet something rather indecent is going on in that head of yours." Mandi smugly smiled and I immediately diffused whatever she was saying.

"No! Nothing like that! When he checked up on me... he left and told me that he liked me. So, that's why I'm so adamant about getting him something for the fourteenth. Assuming I'll be alive by then." I told Mandi. Lingering thoughts still were drowning my confidence.

"The more you talk like that, the less likely you'll live. You have to be confident, just like Sky is. If I take nothing else from who he has become, I will steal that confidence. Did you see his smile and his drive to keep us safe on that bay? It was almost a blinding flash of light radiating off of him. Doesn't that sound super poetic? Anyway... that's what keeps him alive; the drive to want to stay alive. As stupid as it sounds, he's alive because he wills it. He doesn't give up, no matter how bloody or harsh things get, right?" Mandi suggested. I nodded.

"You'll live Dani, and if it's not because you think so, then let it be because Sky thinks so. Plan to give him that present. I'll help you think of something in the meantime." She told me. Mandi sat on the bed next to me and covered herself with the blanket as well, crossing her legs and arms while sitting next to me.

"Oh, what about you, Mandi? Do you plan to get Charlie anything?" I asked her. This time, she got red in the face.

"How did you know who I liked?! Man... well, he likes bows, right?" Mandi asked while covering her mouth. She was doing a bad job of hiding her embarrassment. I nodded with a smile.

"I plan to get him a bow with my name engraved on the handle of it," Mandi said.

Afterward, she giggled a little and started again, "You know, I get a lingering feeling that the things we want to gift our boyfriends are irregular from what's normal." I tilted my head in confusion at her point.

"Boyfriends? Don't they have to ask for that kind of thing?" I asked Mandi, but she shook her head.

"At any given point our lives can end. Maybe there's less of a chance for that now, but beforehand, call whoever you want whatever you want. Our lives were so fragile and so easily disturbed before, but now, it's time for us to officially check what we mean to those men, right?!" Mandi said. Why was she so excited...?

"I-I guess... I wonder what Sky thinks of me." I looked back out of the window, fiddling with my fingers some more.

"I think it's pretty safe to say he cares about you a lot... you know, with that whole confession, and what happened at the beach when you fell unconscious." She told me.

"What happened at the beach? Nobody would tell me." I asked Mandi.

"Well, the way Sky stood over you when Carl set you down. Did you see his body? Fully regenerated. His arm popped out of the stub and his eye came back. That look on his face while standing over your body... it was even scarier than before. I guess that Wrathful monster of a leader we have cares about his people a lot... especially you, Dani." Mandi commented, crossing her legs underneath the blanket the opposite way.

I grinned widely. It made me happy to hear he protected me that much, but it only gave me the drive to protect him even more. I want to be useful to him too... I want to protect him.

"You're really cold, are you sure you don't need any more blankets?" Mandi asked, but I shook my head.

"I think I'll make him something myself... we have a long time before Valentine's Day after all, right?" I asked her. She nodded, slipping out of the bed beside me and picking up her coat.

"That's the spirit! Hey, once you figure out what you do, come get me. I'll help you decide and design or whatever it is you'll be doing. Then, you can help me out with Charlie's, right?" I nodded at Mandi's deal, waving to her as she walked out of my door. I went back to brainstorming, thinking of things I could make him.

Before, I tried to design the interior of our house to be calming for him. He seemed his calmest around the ocean, so I made our windows always point towards the water, and I gave him the bed closest to that ocean. Sky seemed to have nightmares pretty often after Domin died, so whenever I woke up in the middle of the night, I always flipped his body over so he would wake up to the ocean's waves.

To an extent, I hated how much he influenced me... how much I cared about him simply from him just existing. At first, I was attracted to his eyes, but watching him handle himself in our group, beating Ullr up, putting himself on the frontlines, decapitating Raven, killing one of his own kind just to save us... and sometimes to save me, that's what made him attractive to me now. His eyes were the hook to the true feelings I developed for him.

But what does a girl like me offer him? After all, I'm always getting into trouble where he has to save me... what would make him believe that I can now stand with him when we fight together? How can I improve? What can I get him...