[Silver]

“I’m not sure…” Silver said in harshly a whisper. A few moments ago she was pretty certain that she was okay with this, but she was starting to have doubts already. It was just a bit too much.

“It’ll be okay, I’m sure you’ll like it.” Now Kumoya had already done a bit of convincing to get this far. Not because she particularly cared one way or the other, but because she knew how much Silver would like it if she just gave it a chance. She didn’t want to be the reason both of them ended up weird recluses.

[Silver]

Silver looked unsure, but she was willing to give it a try. After all, Kumoya would be there, and that always made her feel a little bit better. Things just seemed easier when she had a friend to tackle them with. Even if it was always the same friend…

She liked the idea of a parade, but in practice it was a little daunting. There were so many people and loud noises, both things she wasn’t too pleased with. However, it was exciting and she was incredibly curious as to what it would be like. She was torn between finding it overwhelming and finding it delightfully exciting.

[Silver]

“The parade isn’t for a couple of hours,” Kumoya said. “What do you want to do while we’re waiting?”

Silver clearly didn’t have any ideas, because she didn’t say anything in response. She scanned the area to see if there was some sort of obvious thing she could suggest, but she was coming up short. That’s when she noticed a group of people playing with some sparkly thing nearby.

“What about that?” she asked, pointing to them.

“That’s the golden thread,” Kumoya said. She didn’t want to sound like it was meant to be obvious and make Silver feel bad, but it was sort of what the festival was called.

[Silver]

“But why are they doing that with it?” she asked, ignoring the drip of sarcasm in Kumoya’s response.

Kumoya always forgot that these customs she grew up with were unfamiliar to Silver. This would be the first time she had ever seen the festival. It was too weird to think about, so she didn’t do it often unless something like this came up. It made her realize that not everyone knew things she could consider ubiquitous.

“Here, let’s give it a try,” she said. It had been years since she participated in some kitschy little ritual like this, but for Silver she would suck it up and give it a try.

[Silver]

She walked up to a man who had an abundance of golden threads on his person and asked for one. When he said the price, she balked, but ultimately handed over the keystones for it. She did make a point to roll her eyes dramatically so he would see how unfair she thought he was being, though.

“Now we weave the thread around our arms, like this.”

Silver looked at some children next to her and held her arms out the same way they were doing it. “Okay, I’m ready,” she said.

[Silver]

“Just like… this and then….” Kumoya was concentrating, trying to remember exactly how this worked, but she inevitably dropped the thread on the ground instead.
“Oh!” Silver squeaked, reaching down to grab the thread for her. They both made the same motion at the same time and nearly collided in the center.

“Ah, I’m so sorry,” Silver said, dropping her end of the thread and blushing a bit. Something about the closeness of their faces made her flustered, even though they spent a lot of time together normally.

[Silver]

Kumoya was not visibly flustered, as she liked to not show any emotion whatsoever when she could avoid it, but she felt herself tense up for a second. She tried to play it off as nothing while quickly straightening the thread back into place. She didn’t even notice the salesman smirking at them as he walked past.

“I think it goes… like this…” Kumoya decided to narrate what she was doing even though it wasn’t really helping either of them.

Before long the two of them had their arms brilliantly decorated with the glittering golden thread. Silver smiled softly and Kumoya looked very proud of herself for remembering how it went. Now all they had to do was…

[Silver]

“Hold on… I think it comes off like….” Kumoya tried to move her arms in a way that removed them from the threads, leaving a web behind, but instead she just got it even more tangled.

“Oh!” Silver chirped as the two of them were forced against each other by the threads between them. The more Kumoya wiggled, the closer she got to Silver. Before she knew it, their bodies were pressed together and all they could move was their faces. They both looked away from one another so they didn’t have to press their noses together awkwardly.

[Silver]

“Bah! Screw this!” Kumoya shouted, throwing her arms up and tearing the threads.

Silver took a step back immediately, both because she was flustered from being so close and the shouting made her even more nervous than before. She took a couple of deep breaths, then attempted to pull herself free of the half of the thread still wound around her.

“Ah, I’m sorry,” Kumoya said after a second. She hadn’t meant to have an outburst like that, but she was simply too agitated to think properly.

“Ooooooh,” a chorus of kids said in unison. They had been watching the whole thing, which both of the girls realized suddenly.

[Silver]

“You’re not supposed to break it!”

“That’s real bad luck for your relationship!”

“We’re not in a relationship!” Kumoya shouted before stomping off.

Silver blushed madly, made awkward eye contact with one of the children, and eventually decided to chase after her friend. She stumbled through the crowd, trying to keep her eyes on her friend while also tossing aside the scraps of thread still clinging to her.

She put her hand on Kumoya’s shoulder, but she brushed her off. “It’s okay, they’re just kids, and we can get a new thread if you want…”

“It’s not about kids… or the thread.”

“... okay.”

[Wild Pet Found]