Spring Days

Erith laughed, spinning around until he was dizzy, letting the flower petals drift onto his hair and clothes as he flopped onto the grass. Arya rolled her eyes. 

“You’re crazy.” She stated, flopping down next to him, and twirling her finger in the air, creating a tiny hurricane that made the petals dance a spin around each other.

“My dear friend, isn’t that why you love me?” Erith teased, flicking a piece of grass at her. It fell before it could make it into her hair. Yosano snorted. 

“Please. Your only redeeming factor is that you’re pretty. Actually, that probably makes me like you less because you should not be prettier than me.” Erith grinned.

“And yet, here we are!” He sniggered, sitting up and posing like an anime girl. Yosano sighed and leaned backwards to admire the sky. She could tell why Erith was in such a good mood today. It was a beautiful spring day, and anyone who didn’t feel good after walking through the park admiring the trees and the flowers could only be the grinch himself.

Erith followed her gaze, and smiled. At five o’clock in the evening, the sky had turned a beautiful shade of pink, and the clouds seemed to be highlighted in gold. Erith stood up suddenly, tugging Yosano along with him. “Come on! I’ll race you to the lake!” He shouted, taking off through the trees. Yosano jumped, then sprinted after him. 

“Wait up! You know how terrible you are with directions, you’ll get lost!” Erith just whooped, and ignored her, making a sign in the air that glowed for a second before disappearing, and Erith leaped straight through a tree. Yosano fought the urge to groan, making the same gesture that allowed Erith to become incorporeal, and raced through the forest after him.

They came out of the forest on top of a hill, and with no hesitation whatsoever, Erith leaped, tumbled, and rolled right down. Yosano was a bit more cautious, picking her way down the grassy slope. As she reached the place her friend had stopped, Erith rolled onto his back, flinging himself back to his feet, and shouted to the heavens, “I feel alive!” Yosano facepalmed, and smiled apologetically at the young couple staring at them a few meters away.

Then, she grabbed Erith, put him in a headlock, and dragged him away.

Erith crunched on the last bit of his ice cream cone as he and Yosano walked back to the apartment. Yosano had allowed (read: forced) him to buy her an ice cream cone as an apology for running away and throwing himself down a hill, and he’d decided to buy himself one too, because apologizing was hungry work!

Yosano had already finished her ice cream, and was busy texting their parents that they were on their way back home. Erith wiped his hands with a napkin, tossing it into the trash can as they passed, and then looked down at himself. His clothes were covered in grass and dirt stains, and he was positive he had grass in his very disheveled hair. His parents would probably kill him if he came home like this.

Erith tried brushing the stains off of his clothes, but it didn’t work. Yosano sighed. 

“Are you, or are you not a magus?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. Then, drawing a simple sign in the air, she pushed it towards him. It was sucked into his clothes, and a moment later, they were clean and wrinkle free.

Erith made a face. “I was just about to do that.” Yosano rolled her eyes. Sticking his tongue out at her, Erith pulled his long dark hair over his shoulder, and started combing through it, picking out pieces of grass, and trying to make it neater.

With his long hair and delicate features, Erith was so often mistaken for a girl that he had debated cutting off all his hair. However, his mother had bemoaned losing his pretty hair that she loved to style, and his dad had bemoaned losing his son who resembled his wife so much, and Erith really liked his long hair anyway.

“Erith! Yosano!” A familiar voice called out. The two of them turned to see Eli running towards them, waving. He screeched to a halt in front of them. “What are you guys doing? You’re not going home are you? It’s too beautiful of a day to waste inside!!” He beamed at them. Yosano rolled her eyes. She’s been doing that a lot lately.

“It’s six p.m, Eli.” She said flatly. “Don’t you have a curfew?” Eli shrugged, and as Erith and Yosano turned to continue walking, Eli followed, slinging his arms around there shoulders. His medium length blonde hair tickled Enith’s neck.

As they walked, he explained. “Today there’s going to be a firework festival at the lake, and my parents gave me permission to go so long as I got back before nine.” Enith’s eyes widened, and he peered across Eli at Yosano hopefully. She sighed.

“I’ll text our parents and ask them if we can go.” Erith and Eli both cheered.

“Let’s go!!”

Their parents had agreed to let them attend the fireworks festival, so long as they promised to be back by nine, to stick together, and to not cause any trouble. Enith promised that they’d try their best.

The three of them spread out a blanket in the grass in front of the lake. The fireworks were going to start soon, and there were already a lot of people setting up blankets and chairs. Children were running around, weaving sparklers through the air. It was still pretty warm outside, so no one was wearing a coat.

On the other side of the lake, Enith could see several magus weaving spells into the air, preparing the show. Eli tugged at his arm, pulling him down into the blanket where he and Yosano were seated.

“Enjoy this while it lasts.” Eli teased. “Soon, we’re going to be headed off to college somewhere far away from each other, and we’ll never be able to do something like this again.”

As the fireworks started, Erith propped his head up in is knee, and promised himself that he’d make the most of these spring days.