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Today is a special day.
It's not special because something happened or because it's in commemoration of a great victory or defeat. No. It's special because today, FINALLY, Solane is getting some time off and taking Cal on a date.
Being governor is hard work, especially with the council still dubious of having a 21 year old in power, even when making the deal with the gardeners has gained her some favor, most of the council still questions her every decision, seemingly stuck in old ways of thinking. At least Cal's presence keeps her centered during these meetings, looking at his understanding eyes helps Sol to feel like she is not alone in guiding the colony to adapt to their new ways of living, even if it hurts to remember why he’s there as chief cultivator.
Still, despite the hardships, she is proving herself a capable leader and deserves a break. So today is Sol's day off, and enveloped in the darkness that’s ever present in glow, she surprises Cal near the depot when he’s on his way back from geoponics, giving him a blindfold and a mischievous smile.
“Um… Thanks?'' he says with a confused smile as he takes the blindfold and looks at it questioningly.
They hear Rex snicker a few steps away . “If you’re confused may I give you some suggestions on how to use it” he proposes with a wink but when he meets Sol's glare he decides to keep further comments to himself, opting instead to walk away while making kissy faces at them.
Sol starts thinking that it was a bad idea to do this in the middle of the colony, near her friends who are definitely going to misinterpret things.
“NO, I-I mean it's not for something like that- I mean It CAN be for something like that, but I actually- No never mind, it was silly, just pretend nothing’s happened”
As she tries to pull away Cal gently holds her wrist, thumb moving in soothing circles, and tilts his head “Hey now, I’m curious, what did you have in mind?”
She explains to him that she sort of wanted to recreate the game he invented when they were kids. And while they're still in the middle of glow, the smile he gives her in response seems to illuminate the whole colony.
“Awwww I didn’t know you still remembered that. Come on, now we have to do it” He says as he ties the blindfold, uncaring of the curious eyes looking at them.
Sol's still a little embarrassed as she starts to direct him to the entrance of the colony, for a while she tries to guide him only with her words, resulting in him turning too much and almost colliding with a distracted Dys.
“It appears that I didn’t give you enough credit when we were kids, successfully guiding a blindfolded person it's harder than it looks”, Sol says with a laugh when he trips over a mushwood log, having to hold him so he doesn’t fall flat on his face.
“Maybe I was just awesome with directions” Cal responds with a laugh of his own as he regains his footing.
Sol snorts “If you were, I wouldn’t have stepped over mom’s tulips”
“Bruh, you did that on purpose! I know it!”
After some more fumbling, Sol decides to take a more direct approach, she takes his hand and starts to guide him to the outskirts of the colony.
The farther they go the more confused he gets. “Where are you taking me?” he asks after a while, by now they could no longer hear the bustling of the colony, only the sound of the wildlife of Vertumna, in another time that would’ve been a cause of concern, however since gardeners have stopped the attacks, glow is the quietest season, even manticores are more likely to evade travelers rather than attack them.
“Shhhhhh, It’s a surprise” Sol turns her head to look back at him, he’s confused but there’s no falter in his step, and it fills her heart with love the blind trust he places on her. Pun intended.
Finally they reach their destination, the top of a hill with a beautiful view of the wormhole. A place where the rest of the world seems to disappear. Sol saw it in one of her dreams, not remembering much more than the breathtaking scenery, the way there and the lingering feeling that something important is going to happen (could’ve happened?) there.
“We’re here” she says as she removes the blindfold.
Solane waits anxiously for his reaction, he looks stunned, taking in the way the giant mushrooms gently emanate light, with the stars infinite above them, and the wormhole looking as it’s about to take them in.
“So… What do you think?” Sol says pushing her shoulder gently against Cal's. That seems to snap him out of it and he turns his smile toward her.
"I love it" He says softly as he puts his arms around Solane's waist. "I love you " He adds as he leans down and kisses her. She lets her eyes close and enjoys the moment, letting her worries melt away under Cal's embrace and the smell of dirt and vertumnan flowers soothe her heart.
The moment is short lived as a particular unisaur huffs near their faces.
“Heh, Hello to you too Twilight Sparkle” Cal says with a crooked smile as you groan on his shoulder at the interruption.
“You couldn’t give us, like, five minutes?” Sol pouts at the unisaur, who responds by turning around and starting to walk towards the colony, leaving the picnic she was protecting and her human behind.
“What do we have here” Cals says going towards the picnic, enthralled by the idea of food he sits near the basket with the goods and looks at Solane expectantly.
Sigh. At least the night is still young, Solane tells herself as she starts to take the food from the basket.
"I got chief stew- I mean Aunt Anne to make some zucchini sandwiches, corn on the cob-"
"CAKE!" Exclaims Cal as Solane takes out a small cake.
"Yes, and cake" She says with an amused smile.
"Yum! Auntie seedent makes the best pastries" He says happy, but with a contemplative look on his face. "But you shouldn’t have bothered, today you were supposed to rest” He slumps his shoulders and tries to admonish, but it comes out as a weak protest at best.
Sol rolls her eyes “Yes, It was SO hard asking aunt Anne to make some dishes for tonight. Honestly I don’t know how I’ll ever recover” She says while dramatically “fainting” on the blanket, her head resting on Cal’s lap. She did have to babysit the kids so aunt Anne had time to prepare the food, but hanging out with Nougat hardly counts as work, and the pillow fight was fun, even if it left her exhausted.
“Jerk” Cal says while threading his fingers through Solane’s hair, she lets out a little sigh of contentment and leans into his touch.
They stay like that for a minute, until an audible growl from Sol’s stomach interrupts them.
“And you say I’m always hungry” Cal remarks with a mocking smile, letting her sit up so they can finish setting up the picnic, once they're done, they sit to eat and catch up on their days. Cake first of course.
…
“- however in their panic they ended up hugging Rex waist and pulling down his pants. I had never seen Nomi’s face so red! In the end uncle Al had to get them down from the construction. I still don’t know how they got so far up there-”
…
“-And He must be really new to geoponics, EVERYONE knows about mom’s boyfriends and wouldn’t DARE say something like-”
…
“-of course it had to be Vace-”
…
“-So I proposed them as the second cultivator, Paraguariensis may be just a kid from Helio but they’ve got potential if they can control their recklessness” Cal finishes with a smile.
“Potential for mayhem maybe” she responds with a laugh, then adds “Weren't you the same age when you were in charge of geoponics? Also it sounds like they made those mistakes because they were really trying to impress you”
“It was still reckless, Cotton could've floated into space" He says with a serious face.
"You know that's not true" She says, then frowns "right?"
"Ha! I got you for a second, of course floatcows can’t get that high, cotton would've come down in a few hours, maybe a day- Oh dip, did we eat everything already?”
It appears they did, the only thing left is bits of frosting stuck here and there in the blanket, left behind by Cal emphasizing with his hands while holding a piece of cake, courtesy of Sol who somehow forgot to pack forks.
“Anyway, that crazy morning was everything interesting that happened today. What about you? Honestly I’m kinda surprised I didn’t see you checking out what was going on in geoponics. Did you finally get to sleep in?” Cal asks with a soft smile.
Sol… actually didn’t get to sleep in, this past days were too busy to prepare the stuff for the picnic, so Solane had to get up shortly after Cal left to search for the chief Steward to ask her for the food, hang out with Nougat, go to the depot and get the basket and blanket nanoprinted, debate with Marz about the times of commissions and the orders she filled wrong (it was’t her fault they weren’t the same from a few weeks ago), try and fail to fix Cal’s old hoverboard as a surprise, get Rosi out of a tangle of cables, grab a snack to get by, get the stuff to the hill, chase the Hopeyes that stole the food when she was distracted, go back and ask the chief Steward to make another cake, get in a pillow fight with the children while the thing was baking, argue with the woman from Helios that was helping with the children about the “proper” way to raise future soldiers, thank Chief Steward (“Please when it’s nothing official just call me aunt Anne”), get everything to the hill a second time, convince twilight sparkle to guard the food (that took longer than she’d hoped), and try to get to Cal on his way home.
“... In a way” She says avoiding his gaze, in theory she slept half an hour more than average so it’s not a lie.
Cal raises an eyebrow, not quite believing her “Uh huh”
She really didn’t want to bring down the mood, nothing terrible happened today but it was still stressful, it was her day to rest and yet she had to do task after task all of them self imposed, her legs feel fatigued and the small pain in her lower back doesn't let her comfortable while sitting on the ground.
“The day was busier than I expected” she concedes.
“...Do you wanna talk about it?” Cal inquires softly, lacing their fingers together.
Looking at him and seeing the honest concern in his eyes it doesn't take her long to begin to talk “It’s just- There’s always something happening, always something that goes wrong, something that needs fixin’ and I’m just-” the knot in her throat doesn’t let her finish. It’s not just about today, she still feels the weight of her decisions over the last decade laying heavy on her shoulders.
When they arrived on Vertumna she’d been naive and just trusted the adults.
She’d trusted her mom and worked her ass off with her in geoponics trying to grow more food for the colony, and then chief cultivator Fluorescent collapsed and never got up again.
She’d trusted her dad when he told her her visions were just dreams, and then chief cultivator Geranium died from the shimmer, the visions of the valley of vertigo, of a place with the promise of an answer appearing as a cruel taunt.
She’d trusted uncle Tonin to find Dys when he sneaked out, and then chief surveyor Melatonin came back torned open.
She’d trusted professor Hal with their electronis, and then the holoprojector professor Halitosis was supposed to ensure maintenance was performed on, was the cause of Tammy’s death.
She’d trusted Auntie Seedent to be there for them, and then chief steward Antecedent decides that she’d just go along with whatever the others councilmembers decide.
She’d trusted chief Reth to maintain order, and then security chief Rhetorical chooses Vace, who is more often than not the instigator of conflict with other colonists, as his second in command.
She’d trusted Instance to make innovations that would improve the colony, and then chief engineer Instance almost lets loose a plague that would’ve destroyed all life on their world.
She’d trusted Seeq to lead them in place of Eudicot, and then chief administrator Obsequious lets themselves be bought by the first person that makes an offer.
It wasn’t really their fault, they couldn't see versions of the future like she could, so it was up to her to be in charge, she has gotten better at remembering and understanding her visions, she has to, she has job to live up to.
Sol doesn’t know when she’d started hugging her knees or clenching her fists, but when she feels Cal get closer to her, she lets him guide her so they are laying down with his arm around her shoulders and her head on his chest. She hugs his waist.
“ I’m tired ” she manages to get out the words but can’t bring herself to look at him in the eyes, so she just hugs him tighter. If he knew she could’ve helped him that first glow so he didn't have to kill, if he knew she could’ve helped him with socks so she didn’t escape, if he knew that she could’ve saved Tammy so they could live their happy ever after, would he still hold her like this?
She thinks he would, he always stands firm on his beliefs and despite everything, he believes in her, so why can’t she tell him everything? he gets along great with Sym and knows he gets visions, it wouldn’t be hard to explain that she does too, and yet, despite how much she wants to say it, in the end she always chickens out.
“Y’know I think you’ve more than earned a vacation” Sol can’t help but let out a laugh. “I’m serious! Honestly with all the work you’ve done, right now the colony’s biggest problem are gossip and our friends shenanigans, it’s not like before when survival was on the line” That’s true, but that doesn't mean nothing will come up, however before she could protest, Cal continues. “I know you don’t like to rely on the council, so… rely on our friends. Tang has gotten instance invested in researching pixie beans so they may become a viable food source, Dys has started to involve himself with the other surveyors helping them adapt to the restrictions placed by the gardeners, and the innovations Marz is implementing in the depot have had Seeq distracted the last meetings. Besides Mom has been asking when we are going to have dinner with them, apparently Perk and Ceph have ideas for a feast for the occasion, or perhaps we could go camping, or heck, we could just lay in bed for the whole day if we wanted!” He says getting more excited with each idea of things they could do.
“ We ?” Interrupts Sol, propping herself on her elbow and looking down at him with an eyebrow raised, because she just can’t pass the chance to tease him.
His face goes red. “Yeah… I mean If you want to? I, like, totally get if you just want to rest and do stuff by yourself! I could even go and stay with mom if-” He stops when he feels her hand on his chest and sees her amused smile. “Wow, this feels familiar” he says with a fond smile of his own.
When Solane leans down and kisses him she tries to convey all her love in a simple press of the lips and the answer she gets in kind matches in devotion. They kiss slowly, taking the time to enjoy the feeling of being together. Cal flips them over so he’s on top of her, and kisses her again moving down to her neck and his hand under her shirt, Sol just leans her hands on his neck and lets him take control, since their first time together he’s been an attentive lover and now that they’ve been together for 3 years he seems to have developed an instinct for what she needs, so she lets herself get carried away by Cal’s attentions and come apart knowing his calloused hands will hold her together.
Perhaps right now she isn’t ready to tell him everything yet, but they have time and they have each other.
So, today isn’t really a special day, today is just one of the many days that Sol gets to take Cal out on a date.