Chapter 25: Seal

Melia carefully patted another layer of the cold cyan clay onto the surface of the mudball.

Her crafting lessons with Shulk had been progressing most excellently. While she was still only making trinkets and decorations with him, rather than anything of practical use, doing so had given her the self-confidence to begin experimenting with other things on her own time. Without a guiding hand, she naturally turned to the material she already had much experience with - ether.

Currently, she was working on a way to create a quick and flashy but harmless explosion of colour, without needing to manipulate her staff or squeeze it out of her own personal ether. The obvious way to do this was to give a container of fire ether a physical shock so it combusted, with it being surrounded by a shell of ice ether to neutralise the damage and add some sparkle. But it was not immediately evident how to set up these circumstances without building concentric glass globes or similar, and shattering glass in that way wouldn't help the "harmless" criteria.

After some time researching the problem (mostly because she didn't really know what she was looking for), she'd hit on the technique of soaking sand with liquid ether, forming an "ether clay". She'd had to experiment with the consistency a bit, but now she felt she'd found the sweet spot between "safe to handle" and "sensitive enough to react when struck". Now, she was working on proportions to figure out which formula produced the best results.

The layer of ice clay complete, she started adding some wind and dark clay in certain locations. Clay was far safer than glass as fragmentation ballast, but it was not negligible, so she also had to design specific patterns of wind and dark ether in an attempt to direct the clay down and away from the thrower without affecting the quality of the firework. It was here that the convenience of her house's location was maximised - the giant ether deposit underneath, connected to the workshop in the basement, meant she had access to a practically unlimited supply of raw material.

The creation complete, she exited the lab and went outside.

Version twelve. New design for the dispersion layer, to not obscure the explosion itself as much. Safety goggles on.

Melia reared up and chucked the clay at the ground. It exploded into a glorious and pretty fireball, surrounding her with light but no heat, with all the clay being blasted downwards rather than into her body and face.

Very good. A little too unwieldy to carry on the regular, at least in the bulky shape I can produce by hand. But for a single pre-planned surprise, it will work just fine.

She returned inside to record in her notes that this recipe was the winner. She needed one for next week, but she'd make it then; hand-worked ether clay worked more predictably when it was fresh.

Shulk woke up. It still felt weird to be using the bed in Dunban's parents' bedroom, but Dunban had all but demanded he start "getting a better night's sleep" than sleeping on the floor. With most of the old possessions being slowly removed over the previous months, and Shulk's stuff creeping in and staying there, it was starting to look more like his own bedroom.

Okay, he started to think, what am I doing today?

As he started the process of getting up, he went over his plans. Where was he on this? What was the next step for that? Which project did he have the most motivation for right now? Was there a deadline coming up somewhere? Were there any problems he ran into yesterday that had to be dealt with right away?

...What day was it today?

...ugh.

It was August 19th, his birthday. Birthdays were cool and all, but because they generally involved spending extra time with other people, they seriously cut into the time he had to do things. And since this is the first one since his whole adventure where he got a bunch of new friends and helped save the world - well, he couldn't really expect to get much of anything done today.

Maybe I'll get lucky and there won't be too much.

Shulk headed downstairs for breakfast. Dunban didn't seem to be home, which probably meant he was getting birthday stuff ready with the others. He took his Pastri-Pops out of the cupboard - which was starting to look pretty empty now that Melia hadn't used this kitchen in a while - and got himself some milk.

He didn't get his breakfast unwrapped before a grinning Reyn all but punted the door open. "Hold it right there, bucko. It's birthday breakfast time. No normal breakfast for you!"

Shulk sighed and decided it wasn't worth fighting this one. "All right, Reyn. You're lucky I hadn't opened it yet." He put the Pastri-Pops back.

"Now get out here. Pancake buffet's up."

"Yeah, yeah."

Shulk followed Reyn outside to see the scene. A large hotplate and a great many stools had been set up in front of the house, and Melia (wearing a comically-oversized chef hat) was handing out pancakes to a crowd of about fifty people. Riki was stirring the big pot of batter.

I know what's about to happen, Shulk thought. Someone's about to notice me and make a fuss about it.

"SHULK!" Riki made a violent point that sprayed batter across the ground. "Everyone! Birthdaypon is here!"

As expected, the crowd turned and erupted into a cacophony of "good morning"s and "happy birthday"s. Shulk answered it all with a half-hearted wave as he shuffled towards Melia, trying to ignore the mob.

"Pancakes," he said.

Melia nodded. "Only the best. How many would you like?"

"One, I guess. Maybe two if they're thin."

"Very well." Melia selected one of the thicker pancakes and placed it on a plate, followed by a small chunk of butter and a healthy slather of syrup. "Your first of many birthday gifts."

"Thanks." Shulk grabbed utensils and found an unoccupied seat. He did like pancakes.

The day progressed as planned. It was mostly colony-wide sports and other physical activities, broken up in the middle by a buffet for lunch. Luckily, no one forced Shulk to actually participate if he didn't want to, as long as he was present and did the refereeing or scorekeeping or similar. Even just this irked him a bit, since it didn't really seem like a "Shulk birthday activity" at that point, but it was certainly better than the alternative.

Partway through the afternoon, Shulk noticed that Riki had gone missing. Actually, he didn't see any Nopon at all anywhere. This was very weird.

He must be planning something. He wouldn't be just leaving the fun like that.

His suspicion was quickly proven true. Within a minute of Dunban saying the next event would be held just outside the colony gates, a flood of Nopon burst out of what seemed like every building in the colony, each carrying multiple chairs, stools, or other sort of seats. About half of them chanted "meh" with every step.

"What the...?" Shulk hurried over next to a wall to avoid the crest of the wave.

Dunban chuckled as he smoothly stepped through the mob to stand next to him. "Not exactly what I expected when Riki said they needed a lot of seats. I do hope everyone brings them back to the correct places afterward."

Shulk waited for the bulk of the crowd to pass and started following them. They seemed to be going the same place as everyone else - the colony gates. Obviously, this movement of chairs was related.

It didn't take long to see the reason. In the clearing outside the colony, a stage had been set up, and the mass of seats was being placed in front of it. To the sides of the stage were a huge line of patchwork curtains with Nopon peeking out, presumably for hiding props and such from the incoming audience.

"I don't think we'll be allowed to simply sneak into the crowd," mused Dunban.

"Yeah." Shulk noticed that in the middle of the mass of seats, somewhat closer to the front, a group of five had been set apart from the others around. It was pretty obvious who they were for.

"Hello Mr. Guest of Honour!" A young pink Nopon fresh off her growth spurt had appeared in front of them. "And other Mr. Guest of Honour! Usherpon Nene will show Guests of Honour to seats!"

Another pink Nopon, slightly older, followed. "Usherpon Nene will pick one Guest of Honour. Usherpon Wiki will take the other."

"But Usherpon Nene has two wings!"

"Snooze and lose." Wiki stepped squarely in font of Shulk. "Guest of Honour Shulk will follow Usherpon Wiki."

Shulk shrugged as Nene pouted. "Okay then."

To no surprise, Wiki led him to the five set-apart seats and directed him to sit in the middle one. Nene soon brought Dunban over to the left-most one. Over the next several minutes, the two Nopon seated Reyn, Sharla, and Melia, while the rest of the audience filed in.

Once no more stragglers were visible, Riki stepped through the curtains out onto the stage, wearing a giant top hat.

"Heropon Riki welcome you all to main event!"

The first round of applause came and went.

"Play you about to watch is Riki's greatest work, in conjunction with his sonnypon Jaylay. It show dramatic retelling of Heropon's and friends' journey, from point of view of Shulk the birthdaypon. So! All sit and be quiet, for premiere about to begin. A Heropon And Sonnypon Production: Beginning of the World!"

As expected, the play was heavily simplified. Xord was defeated when he first appeared, the fights against Mumkhar in Valak Mountain and Sword Valley were combined into one, and Satorl Marsh and much of the travel across Mechonis were skipped entirely. Most surprisingly, Dickson and Lorithia had been completely removed - Zanza simply exited Shulk at will, the Telethia event was only seen at a distance, and the path through the Bionis' interior and Prison Island was shortened and unobstructed. It did all make for a tighter story, but having lived through the depicted experience, it still felt a bit weird.

It remained a good watch. The Face Mechon were depicted by a conglomeration of six Nopon plus one for the pilot. Riki played both the narrator and himself. The Nopon playing Melia was actually able to summon a real bolt with her borrowed Protect Staff. The music, played by the Phrontier Philharmonic, was best described as "strangely fitting".

After the curtains closed and the applause died down, Dunban stepped up to announce that the next event would be the dinner feast. From there, everyone started to file out and head home until then, many finding and taking their own chairs back with them.

Shulk hung around at the edge of the crowd, waiting for it to thin out so he could approach Riki. He had a question about the edited script.

He didn't have to wait very long. Riki spotted him milling about and immediately cancelled his current conversation to beeline directly for him.

"Riki knows what Shulk wants to ask, so he will answer right away."

Shulk nodded, unsure whether to be bothered or grateful that he'd made it so obvious.

"From beginning, Riki's first idea was for play to be played this day, day of Shulk the birthdaypon. Play is for celebrating all good and cool stuff Shulk do, not for reminding of sad and pain. So Riki only kept the sad and pain that he needed for story to make sense. Riki does have version with all of everything, including parts that bother Shulk most. One day maybe, Shulk will be more over it, and enjoy whole thing in full. But not yet."

"...Thanks, Riki."

The birthday feast passed in almost a blink. It felt like one moment dinner was being served, then the next moment everyone had a piece of cake in front of them, and then suddenly the food was gone and the presents were being brought in. Shulk wondered if this was just because everyone was so hungry that the food vanished quickly.

It seemed like half of Colony 9 had something to give him, and gifts from the other settlements weren't exactly scarce either. Most of the gifts were standard birthday fare - socks, candy, and gift cards being the most common. The most memorable presents so far were a pair of ether-sensitive binoculars, a multivariate calculus textbook, a Machina welding mask, and a chess clock. Heck, even Alvis had pitched in, with a kit of key-making tools. The table Shulk was sitting at was piled high with loot.

To try and keep things interesting, his companions spaced themselves out amongst the general "stuff". Sharla had given an antique watch that had been refurbished into a casing made of Mechon armour. Dunban had given a copy of Advanced Ether Physics Research, which Shulk had trouble lifting with both arms. Riki had given a hand-crafted diorama of the Bionis and Mechonis with the "science station" Alvis had spoken of hanging overhead, which impressed Shulk simply to see proof that Riki could stand still. Reyn had given a hat made of a rare strain of Caterpile silk that reflects in different colours based on the angle of the sun.

Finally, the line was exhausted. No more gifts were coming.

Shulk knew something was up. He started to try and subtly look through the crowd to find Melia. After a few moments, some of the crowd also started to get suspicious, wondering why nothing was happening but no one was declaring the event over.

Melia, invisible via the Visitor's Gem, carefully and quietly stepped into the gift-giving position. She took out her ball of ether clay and waited.

Once the whispers in the crowd started to intensify, she made her move, taking the clay ball and throwing it at her feet as hard as she could. As designed, a harmless, colourful explosion of flame blossomed up around her. When it reached its brightest, she shut off the effect of the Visitor's Gem.

To everyone else, it appeared as if Melia had teleported into position in a flash of fire. Large amounts of surprise reverberated through the crowd.

Shulk was slightly less surprised. He'd had the feeling Melia had been working on something, though no idea what, and whatever deserved this sort of introduction would make sense to be that.

Melia stepped up to the table and produced her gift: the Moon's Tear. She'd wrapped its box in only plain white paper to contrast with the spectacle inside.

"It would be a gross understatement to say that this gift is something I could never have imagined even possessing, let alone bequeathing, mere months ago. It is far from the most valuable thing I own, yet it is simultaneously the most irreplaceable." She paused for effect. "And the physical object within the box that renders it isn't half bad either."

After what had felt like eons of anticipation since attuning to it, she finally placed it on the table in front of Shulk.

Shulk seemed somewhat mystified by the description, but shrugged it off and carefully unwrapped the box, followed by opening the lid to reveal the multicoloured glow within.

The crowd went silent as he carefully lifted the tear and its base out of the box, placing it on the table.

He stared at the light show for a few moments. An unusual calm drifted over his mind, like he would have nothing to worry about as long as it shined.

"So what is it?"

"It is just as I said, no more and no less."

Something she doesn't want to say in public then. "Well, whatever it is, it's...it's..."

Shulk then had an idea: give Melia a hug in response to this present. He then immediately had a better idea: offer a hug, and allow her to decide whether she wanted it. After all, it still wasn't a normal thing for her yet, and a lot of eyes were on them. Actually, scratch that, even better idea: wait until they were in private, so he could both get the real explanation and deliver the hug in safety at the same time.

Okay, so what now?

Someone yelled from the back of the crowd, "Kiss her you dolt!"

A lot of things happened at once. A mixture of nervous and hearty laughs travelled through the crowd. Reyn yelled "OI!" loud enough to startle a flock of birds perched on the nearby colony wall. Several wolf-whistles went out. Some nerdy High Entia started to rattle off why this would be incredibly inappropriate. A Nopon screamed "SIC 'EM!" and tried to start a fight but was quickly ejected from the crowd.

Shulk felt like this was very awkward and it was evident to everyone. Melia didn't show any reaction, she was too well-trained in dealing with crowds.

Dunban stood up. This caused the chaos to subside rather quickly.

"If we're done with the gift-gifing," he said with some authority, "it's time to open the floor."

There was general agreement as the crowd started to move.

"I'll need help getting this all moved." Shulk replaced the Moon's Tear into its box.

"Don't need tellin' twice." Reyn grabbed an armful of gifts. "Let's get a move on. Can't wait to get this party really started."

Dunban took a deep breath. His house was going to be a bit chaotic for a few days while Shulk's huge pile of new possessions got sorted out.

It was almost nine o'clock when Shulk decided, having not been approached by someone who wanted to talk for the last five minutes, that he could finally escape the party. He quickly stepped through the crowd of partygoers, who were mostly excited that the alcoholic drinks were starting to come out, and slipped into Dunban's house.

He closed the door and looked for a chair to collapse into, but everyone had stacked the gifts onto the chairs once the table was covered, so none were available. He staggered upstairs to what was now basically his room, swiped the curtains closed, and flopped onto the bed.

He'd already long given up doing anything productive today, but now he was so beat it felt like he wouldn't be getting much done tomorrow either. That was the worst. Losing a day to a birthday was fine because that only happened once a year - two in a row was really annoying.

The door downstairs opened and closed. Presumably Dunban had also gotten tired of the party and...wait, no, he was the one serving the drinks.

Melia appeared in the doorway, looking concerned. "Shulk, are you all right?"

Oh that makes sense. "Yeah, just tired. Too much people today."

"I understand."

Shulk hefted himself up to a sitting position. He needed alone time, but a few minutes with just Melia would be okay. "You're used to dealing with a lot of people at once though, right?"

"Being used to it does nothing to curb my dislike of it." Melia stepped over to stand beside the desk, not bothering to turn the light on. "It has been so long for me that I find it difficult to imagine how bad it must be for you."

It then occurred to Shulk that this was a good time to ask what the glowing orb was about - he'd placed its box on the desk right next to Melia. With some effort, he got up and went over to it, taking it out of the box and placing it on the desk. With the curtains closed, it lit the room by itself.

"So, what is it?" He stared into it.

"It is called the Moon's Tear, one of a pair with the Sun's Tear. They are ancient artefacts handed down the imperial family for untold years. The colour and intensity of the glow within corresponds with the affection one holder has for the other."

Shulk let the description roll around in his mind for a bit before answering. "So it's like a relationship tester?"

"Crude, but accurate."

"And did we pass?"

Melia chuckled. "Shulk, before I attuned us to them, they were mere rocks on a pedestal. What do you think their current splendor means?"

"Well, I..."

Shulk looked up to see the crystal shining in Melia's eyes, with no other light source to contest it. He remembered what he thought about earlier.

"I think...it means you get a hug. I-If you're okay with that."

Melia blinked in surprise. It had been...it had to have been several months since the last hug from Shulk. Yes that's right, she had broken down about receiving a house. And the one before that...in retrospect, all the previous ones were under duress of some sort. Duress or denial.

Denial? Yes, that was the right word to use. She had been in denial of her feelings because they were new to her and she didn't want anyone to see her struggle with figuring them out. She had an image to project, and enjoying hugs went against it.

Given the brilliant light between them, all that had to change.

"You do not need to ask."

Shulk was surprised to hear this, but he didn't waste any time in stepping forward and delivering the promised hug. And to his even greater surprise, she hugged him back.

"This is almost a better present," he said. It felt good for the gesture to not be challenged, to be allowed to make her happy without needing to say anything.

"The two are one and the same," she answered. It felt good to not be worrying about whether it was okay, to be settled within his comforting ether without guilt.

The hug lasted for about half a minute. Shulk was the one who decided it'd been long enough and let go. It took Melia a moment to realise before doing so herself.

"I think..." Melia paused with some uncertainty for a moment. "I think we should do this more often."

"What, hugging?"

"Indeed. It seems safe to say that we both enjoy it."

Shulk couldn't argue with that; it had made him feel better after the day's party than flopping into bed did. Then something came to mind.

"So, when you said I don't need to ask...did you mean just this one time, or...?"

Melia was glad that he asked. She had intended for the meaning to be ambiguous, and he responded with proof that he still cared about having her permission.

"It is an indefinite offer."

"Okay."

Shulk immediately hugged her again. Melia was not prepared and almost tried to escape by instinct, but caught herself and reciprocated. Shulk considered making a joke about her not being ready for what she said she was ready for, but chose not to. Instead, a completely different thought came to mind. He thought about it for a moment before deciding to just blurt it out.

"What about kissing?"

Melia was taken aback. "That...er, well...I hadn't...put any consideration into..." She forced herself to stop babbling. There was no need to rush an answer.

"That doesn't sound like a no." He meant it in a teasing way, but it came out a bit more real.

She thought about correcting him for just a moment. But what was another step, at this point?

"...It was not."

Shulk suddenly became nervous. The last time he'd done this, those months ago, was a spur-of-the-moment thing. It felt harder to put himself up to it when she was expecting it, standing in his embrace, waiting and looking right at him in the light of the sparkling orb.

Melia sensed the unease. Given his posturing beforehand, this was unexpected. She considered that this might be the right time to do something more assertive.

After some seconds, they both moved at the same time, and their lips met.

It was far from their first kiss, but it was the first mutual one, and they could both feel that fact.

Something indescribable yet tangible was different about it.

It was as if the final bit of doubt and denial over their relationship had dissolved.

There was no sudden rush, no great uplifting of weight. Just a slient realisation that this would be the first of many.

It was only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity.

The two pulled away from each other at the same time.

Melia blinked. "Shulk, you're...crying."

Shulk rubbed his eyes. "I...I don't know. It's like...relief? I think?"

"Relief. Yes, I think that is applicable."

"You feel it too?"

"Of a sort. I would describe it as...a confidence that something uncertain has been dispelled. I don't know what this could mean, but it's what I feel."

"Yeah. Same here."

Shulk's tiredness suddenly returned to him. It felt like he had a minute to live.

"Well that was great," he said, "but I'm about to fall over."

Melia nodded. "Happy birthday, Shulk. I won't expect to see you tomorrow."

"Thanks." With great effort, Shulk shuffled over to the bed.

Melia stepped out and closed the door. Everything had gone even better than expected.