Immortalys II: The Expansion

Chapter Twenty-Five: Canada Revealed

As the beautiful June days melted seamlessly into July, plants bloomed across the city, the sun shone (for twenty-four hours) on the tundra cleared of snow, and parents took their children to all sorts of summery activities.

Blainey and Willow had recently helped plan a birthday party for Adelaide Meadow-Crag at the Immortalys public pool with the assistance of the rest of the citizen committee of the Event Department. The public pool was situated in the south part of the city which was clustered with lush trees; the warm water wound its way through about twenty-seven different pools or hot tubs, connected by waterfalls and streams. The party was held in pool 16, which was curved in shape to fit among a group of cypress trees, and Blainey was kept busy with decorations and choosing lunch foods for the children.

Blainey enjoyed her new job: it gave her something to do in her free time besides going to the Ice Center or to Willow and Friction's house. She meant to thank Altair again for the opportunity, but since the wedding she had not seen him in person, and after a while she decided sheepishly that it was too late to tell him by text.

On a particularly warm and bright day, Blainey, Willow, and Friction decided to take a walk down by the lakeshore. Blainey skipped along over the pebbles, humming to herself while Willow and Friction walked behind her, smiling and holding hands. The sun warmed Blainey's skin and the wind blew her stray hairs from her forehead; in her opinion it was another perfect summer day.

Friction reached down into the water and splashed some playfully into Willow's face. She shoved him away and ran ahead of Blainey, laughing incredulously. "Try that again, Sicko, and I'll throw your whole body in the water!"

"Not if I throw you first!" Friction called, and he chased her for a few meters along the shore.

Blainey giggled and followed them, stopping when Friction caught Willow and snatched her right off of her feet. He pretended to toss her into the water and then pulled her back into a hug as she struggled loudly in his grasp.

"You are sleeping outside tonight," Willow gasped at him.

Friction threw his arms up incredulously. "You wanted me to rub your back in bed, but that's okay... I don't have to do that now..."

Willow laughed and flung her arms around him. "Ah, I almost forgot. No, you're definitely sleeping in the bed tonight."

Friction flicked his eyebrows at Blainey and said, "This is how you make deals with your spouse, Blainey. Watch and learn!"

Willow pretended to slap him. "Why do we even share a house?" she teased. "Oh yeah: I married you. Oops."

"Your reasoning is backwards," Friction observed, hugging her tighter before she struggled out of his arms. "We shared a house first. You must love me so much..."

"It always weirded me out that you two were living in the same house when you weren't married," Blainey interjected reasonably.

Willow shrugged and looked at Friction. "Yeah... I guess we were both pretty immature. It didn't seem that weird to us in the moment, though."

Friction laughed. "We don't have to worry about that anymore! I can finally even sleep in the same bed as you and feel perfectly fine about it."

They had rearranged the whole house to do that, Willow had said earlier. All they had done, really, was move some of Willow's things into Friction's room and she kept her own room as a guest space and storage for all of her stuff. She wouldn't have it the other way around.

"Well..." said Willow, finally untangling herself from Friction, "who wants to go get some lunch?"

Right as the three of them turned around to return to the trail up the cliff edge, Blainey heard a notification sounding from each of their Surfaces. Surprised, she dug hers out of her pocket and opened it.