Thursday, January 4

Ethan

"...Tsuki helped with this one, didn't she?" I asked, chuckling a little to myself.

"Ahahaha, maybe..."

"Of course she did."

"Why do you ask?" Monika said, as I (jokingly) glared up at her from the couch, character sheet in hand.

"Did she say something about me throwing books at you?"

"...yes. What does that mean, anyway?"

"It means, babe, that you've written something cheesy enough to give the GM trouble, abusing the content of the rulebooks, so the GM is within their rights to chuck your books at your face." I laughed. "I gotta say, this is pretty good. You've got a really solid selection of spells, you've got the right feats to make a bow work, and good lord your skills are... man. You could bluff somebody into thinking a cheeseburger was a steamed ham," I finished, smirking up at her.

Monika looked indignant. "Actually, I picked those spells by myself! Tsuki gave me a few pointers, but she never told me what spells to take!"

"Huh. You really did pick up on this fast. This is good shit. And your character concept... I really like it." Her pout turned into a warm smile at that. "I guess I should have expected it coming from a writer, but... you're really good at this, you know that?"

"Ahaha, I try!~" she beamed.

Internally, I debated whether I should say something about the obvious self-insert of her depression. Nobody else would have gotten it, but for me, it was impossible to miss. In a lot of ways, her story about leaving home was... more or less a direct retelling of her deleting her world and killing her friends. I had to talk about it at some point. I could tell it was killing her; I mean, that right there was some pretty strong evidence. But... she seemed so happy right then. I couldn't bring myself to. Maybe some other time, I decided.

In the mean time, I had something else in mind. I got up and walked over to the kitchen, and reached into a drawer where I'd stashed something when I came home, before I went over to Lia's to pick up Monika.

"Oh, by the way, before I forget, I got you something, dearie. This's why I was late, incidentally..."

I handed Monika a bag full of rolls of ribbon.

"I made a stop at Michael's after I left work. I know how much you love this stuff, soooo..."

Monika threw her arms around me, standing up on her toes, and pressed her forehead against mine before sharing a slow, soft kiss. Yep, worth every penny.

"I really don't know what I did to deserve this... but I'm so glad I have you," she whispered.

"Well, it doesn't have to be Valentine's Day for me to get you nice things, you know! Unless you mean in general... in which case, I'd ask the same thing myself. ...I don't know if you realize it, Monika, but you're incredible. I've never met anyone like you, and I don't think I ever will again. I..." I choked up. "Monika, you are so loved. Don't you ever forget that for one second. I don't care if you don't think you deserve it. You are, and you always will be. Always."

I felt her tears on my shoulder. I suppose the feeling was mutual there.

"Come on, princess, let's get to bed, it's starting to get late."