"Your aura is bright."
"What?"
"Your aura. It looks as if the sun puked all over it."

"Ever been on a roller coaster?"

With a yelp, the butterknife that Charlie was using to spread Nutella on a slice of bread slipped from her fingers. Azriel snatched it effortlessly from the air as it fell and returned it to the hand of its user.

"Jesus, don't do that!" scorned the frightened one quietly.

Raising her hands in mock surrender, Azriel acknowledged her mistake. "My bad. Didn't realize you weren't used to that yet."

Charlie rolled her eyes. "Of course I've been on a roller coaster. Who hasn't?"

"Well, me, for one," admitted Azriel, shrugging.

"Of course you haven't."

A pause in the conversation occurred. "So?" Azriel leaned closer to her. "Wanna take me?"

Charlie gazed at her half-finished Nutella sandwich with yearning. She'd been craving Nutella all day and just now gotten the chance to finally consume it. With a sigh, she nodded. "Sure."

Azriel's lips stretched into a grin. "Great! You're driving." Being tossed a ring of keys, Charlie clumsily caught them and stared at them intently.

"Just like that? We're leaving for a carnival?"

With a shrug, the brunette pursed her lips and nodded. "Yeah. We're taking your car, right? I don't think a two-hour ride on the back of a scooter would be comfortable."

Rolling her eyes, the redhead proceeded to put her sandwich in the microwave for safekeeping. "Of course we're taking my car. I swear, sometimes it feels as if I'm your babysitter instead of you being my guardian. A strange realization, I must admit, but it's true."

☼☼☼

The car ride to the amusement park was a combination of fun and boredom. The two-person party stopped at a convenience store to prepare for the travel. They purchased mounds of sugary snacks and soft drinks before embarking.

Two minutes into the ride, Azriel spilled skittles all over the floorboards of the yellow Volkswagen Beetle. With annoyance, Charlie fussed at the childish angel, but quickly forgave her when she was presented with gummy bears.

Thirty minutes later, Azriel grew bored and decided to fiddle with the radio. She landed on a station that played hits from the '80s and Should I Stay or Should I Go by the Clash blared from the speakers. Finding the tune catchy, the guardian accepted it and jammed to the melody.

One hour later, and the angel was banging the side of her skull on the window in a state of restlessness. Charlie agreed to play a few games with her passenger so that Azriel wouldn't resort to annoying her.

"What's your favorite animal?" questioned Charlie, her eyes on the road.

"Hmm... probably the quokka." Seeing the confused expression on her friend's face, she began to explain casually. "It's a macropod indigenous to Australia. About the size of a domestic cat. It's like a small kangaroo."

Shaking her head, she continued on. "Favorite color?"

"Red," replied Azriel, without hesitation and without explanation this time.

"Oh, cool. Mine's yellow."

Next, they proceeded to play Would You Rather.

"Would you rather only be able to dance instead of walk for the rest of your life or always have your voice sound like you just inhaled helium?" Charlie presented her proposition with pride.

"Let's go with the helium."

"What's wrong with dancing?"

"Nothing, but dancing everywhere? That's just impractical."

☼☼☼

After their arrival at the carnival, they hurried to the ticket stand to purchase tickets. Within minutes, they had entered the colorful area filled with exhilarating rides and fatty foods.

Within minutes, the pair settled into the booths of the ancient, rickety ride. The one in charge of the coaster monotonously instructed everyone to buckle up and to not do anything stupid. Excitement and fright rushed through Charlie's blood as she searched for something to hold onto. Finding Azriel's hand, she gripped it and met her seatmate's eyes with an indiscernible expression. "Ready?" questioned her smirking friend.

A shake of the head and a nervous smile was what she received in response.

With a cackle, the angel faced forward as the ride inched forward with a creak.

Screams of glee and fright followed. The only thing Azriel took away from the experience is how she felt as though a volcano erupted within her every time Charlie squeezed her hand.

After they were finished on the roller coaster, the dark-haired woman purchased a stick of cotton candy for her still unenthusiastic companion. The arcade having been suggested, Charlie nodded eagerly with a mouth full of pink floss. They embarked.

Acquiring over one hundred tokens each, Azriel chuckled as she regarded Charlie, scrambling to her favorite video game. There was that feeling again; the explosive one. Azriel couldn't pin it. She hadn't experienced it before. With a pep in her step, she followed the animated ray of sunlight and joined her at Ms. Pac-Man.

A change in the music incited a gasp from the redhead. As Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves blared through the speakers of the game room, Charlie grinned and seized Azriel's hands. "I love this song! Dance with me."

As Charlie began twirling goofily, laughs escaped the angel's lips as she attempted to match her chaotic groove. There was a certain way about Charlie, how she never failed to entertain Azriel, never failed to make her laugh, never failed to make her feel like she had something to be doing, someone to be with. Charlie gave the angel a purpose, and even throughout all her years of being a warrior for heaven, that was something she had never truly had before.

The song ended quicker than Azriel wanted it to. Her grin never escaped the firm grasp she had on it. Snapping out of her bliss-induced daze, Charlie was gathering some of the tokens she had spilled. Straightening back up, the beautiful redhead suggested that they play some more games.

The angel agreed.

☼☼☼

wc. 1013