I think I might feel differently about you than anybody else.

The awkward conversation they’d had with their mother in Chismest. That time in Xiatian when Miriam brewed a knock-off Potion of Power. A shared dance and conversation in The Crater. Audrey ended the world and, in an incredible moment when the bard felt like giving up, they saw the witch still flying in front of them and kept going.

After the long journey all over the world, they had hugged and Kiwi watched as the witch turned around and flew off only after a lengthy pause. As if she didn’t really want to leave, either.

Kiwi sits in their room, thinking about how Miriam had reacted when they gave her that love letter from Peter. She had looked cute with that angry blush.

It doesn’t stir up butterflies in their stomach, but the memory stays in their mind.

They smile and close their eyes.

***

I think about you all the time even when you’re not here.

A few more moments come up that assure Kiwi that they must have feelings of some sort for their best friend. Nothing changes on the outside — they were still friends, after all — but the more they think about it, the less certain they are that the feelings are platonic in nature. They’d had crushes before, they told themself, so it’s not as if this was new… but what is new this time is the fact that they knew this person, and was already friends with her as opposed to admiring someone cool from afar. The feelings were just confusing.

However, the longer they dwelt on the feelings, the more certain the bard became about the one action they could take to help resolve the confusion:

Tell Miriam.

A hand on their shoulder surprises them out of their thoughts and they quickly turn to the hand’s owner - the source of all their newfound trepidation lately in the shape of an adorably grumpy witch. Her eyebrows furrow together in worry.

“Hey. You’ve been spacing out a lot more than usual lately… are you okay?”

Kiwi laughs nervously. “Oh - yes! I’ve just been thinking lately.”

“About what?” Miriam waits for the bard to tell her. There’s another awkward pause before she asks again. “…Kiwi?”

“Sorry! I just don’t know how to explain it.” They lean on the backrest of the bench where the two are lounging, in the middle of Delphi. Out of nervousness they swing their legs. “Have you ever had a crush before, Miriam? What did it feel like to go on that date with Peter?”

“It…” The witch grumbles embarrassedly and turns away, tapping her foot. “It was nice, like I said. He was nice. But, it was dumb anyways. The world was ending. It’s not like I’d have stayed in the town to keep seeing him either. And before that, I didn’t really have feelings for anyone. I just… thought it’d be nice to try going on a date, and I did that, and it was nice.”

“Were you interested in him?”

She shrugs. “No. Yes? A little? That’s what dates are, to get to know someone. I don’t think we’d be romantically compatible.”

“Oh,” Kiwi says. They can already feel themself getting lost in thought again… but they shake their head.

“Why ask?”

“Just curious~”

***

I think you’re dazzling.

That is the adjective that comes to mind on the few occasions Kiwi sees Miriam smile openly. Dazzling, like the sun. On a nice partly cloudy day, like this, when the petrichor is still in the air after it rained the day before… it feels just right, and they return the smile in full force.

Miriam’s smile goes wider and Kiwi imagines a happy flutter in their heart.

“Aren’t your boots ruined?” she asks, looking down to the bard’s boots, which were at this moment lodged in the shallow depths of a muddy puddle.

“They’re leather! There’s a nice shoeshiner in Langtree that I always go to whenever they’re muddied,” Kiwi answers.

“It’d still suck to get your socks wet if the puddle was deeper than it looked.”

“That’s why I trust they aren’t~”

An amused scoff comes from the witch, walking around the puddle as Kiwi steps out. “What does that even mean?”

“Appearances aren’t everything, Miriam. It doesn’t rain very often in Langtree, so I usually wait until a day later before I step in puddles… they’re always deep when it rains.”

“That makes sense. Drier climate and all.”

She kicks a rock into the puddle. It makes Kiwi’s reflection all wiggly.

“…Miriam, can I tell you something?”

Their friend stops and turns to Kiwi, head tilted curiously. “Yes.”

“I think I…” The bard fidgets with their capelet. This isn’t their first confession, but it is the first one where they had talked directly to the person rather than writing a letter, leaving it somewhere for them to find, and running off.

“I have a crush on you.”

Somehow, it doesn’t feel as world-shattering as books and movies make confessions sound. The only thing that makes them feel uneasy is that anything about their relationship might change. Their breath stills as they wait for Miriam to say something.

She… doesn’t give off any visible signs that she’s about to reject her. In fact, she looks surprised. But that turns into a sort of frown only seconds later and she folds her arms.

“You… you do?”

“Yes!” Kiwi amends, “But it’s okay if you don’t return my feelings. I’d really like to stay friends and I don’t want to change anything about our relationship.”

Miriam only keeps that odd look about herself. “Kiwi… why?”

“Huh? Why?”

“Why do you have a crush on me?”

They pull the brim of their hat down to hide their embarrassment. “Um… because I think I do. I always want to spend time with you, I think you look beautiful, and… you always make my day a little better when I see you. So, I might have a crush on you, but it also kind of feels like I want to be closer as a friend…?”

“Oh.” The witch’s expression stays the same for a moment before she lets out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding, and she sighs. “That’s very flattering, but… you sure? It doesn’t sound like you have a crush on me.”

“Huh? But… I mean—“ Kiwi stutters, turning a little red. “W-what else could it be?”

“I don’t know, you just said you wanted to be closer? What you described doesn’t sound like romantic feelings to me.” She notices Kiwi’s downbeat body language and backtracks. “But— I’m not saying that, it just doesn’t seem like it to me. You haven’t acted any differently and… what do you think of when you think of us being together?”

“I…” They think, taking their hand off their hat to rest it on their chin. “I want to sit across from you at a table, and talk, and give you longer hugs, and hold hands, and go with you on broom flights more often.”

“We’ve been flying? We’ve literally been doing all of those things?” She looks down at her hands. “Well, except for holding hands… do you see that as romantic?”

“Nope, I just want to hold hands! But the books say that’s a romantic thing, and I don’t know romance very well, so I read those. Because… that’s something everyone has, they need a soulmate, they need a special someone in their life~” singsongs the bard, although they stop when they see Miriam’s worried expression. “Mim? What’s wrong?”

“D… do you feel pressured to… have you been worried about that this whole time? Am I just… a checklist to you?”

“NO!” Kiwi shouts. “No, no, I’ve never thought that! You aren’t a checklist, I always wanted to be friends with you because you’re you! Not because I needed any of those things and—“

They pause.

Their capelet crumples up in their hands as they look down at the puddle.

“— I never had a crush to begin with. I… only wanted to be closer friends. I’m so sorry, Miriam.”

***

Thank you for being my friend.

Kiwi thinks, for a terrifying second, that Miriam might stop being her friend. They didn’t have a doubt before, and when the thought had crossed their mind - they’d justified it by thinking, if she doesn’t want to be friends anymore, that’s okay. We don’t have to be friends. In retrospect, it was a horribly depressing thought that they had pushed to the back of their mind.

The bard doesn’t expect fingers to brush over theirs, then wrap around their hand. Miriam looks away sheepishly, slightly flustered herself.

“…I’m sorry for making you worry, too.”

They raise their eyebrows. “Huh?”

Miriam squeezes their hand. “I- I thought the same way. That I had to have a crush on you. Just because… I don’t know, I thought it had to be that way, but thinking about it freaked me out, and I just didn’t want to become all gross and sappy.”

“But… you already are!”

“I know,” she huffs, though now she smiles. “I mean, I don’t want to get gross like, uh— have you thought about kissing?”

Kiwi laughs. “No! I don’t want to…”

“Me neither.”

“Not even with other people?”

“No.” The blue-haired witch shakes her head and continues on walking down the path. “It’s overrated. I’d rather do literally anything else than kiss or go on romantic dates or— blegh.”

Her friend swings their linked arms, starting to skip alongside her. They grin.

“Do you still love me?”

“Yes!”

“Love you, too.”