The next morning, Edward had woken up early and was already gone by the time Natalie had gotten up. She was a bit confused too. She thought she’d fallen asleep on the couch last night. Had Edward moved her? She went out into the open room and there was a blanket folded up at the end of the couch. She put two and two together and figured out that he had indeed moved her and had slept out on the couch instead. Natalie couldn’t help but to think it was pretty sweet of him.
Looking at the clock Natalie realized she had to go relieve him. “Oh crap, if I don’t hurry…” She rushed to get changed and get her things together and ran out.
It took her longer than she’d expected to get there. The entire campus was mobbed with people, more so than she’d counted on.
“You’re late,” he said as she came up to the World Tree Plaza. Thankfully he didn’t sound angry. Mana Tatsumiya and Asuna were waiting there as well. Natalie had her shift with Asuna so Edward must have spent the last two hours with Mana. That should have been interesting to see, Edward and his alchemy with Mana and her rubber bullets.
“Pretty quiet morning,” Mana said. “Only had one attempt which was easy enough to handle but it’s only the first day and it’s early. Hopefully it will stay quiet for you two. Now that the opening ceremonies are over, more people will be milling about here though so keep on your toes.”
“Thanks Mana,” Asuna said. She was already carrying her harisen fan and was ready for some action. Mana left but Edward lagged behind for a moment.
“I’ll meet you back in here two hours OK?” he said.
Natalie chuckled. “Alright, I’ll see you then.” Edward grinned at her then walked off into the crowd.
Asuna looked at Natalie with a grin. “I’d keep an eye him if I were you.”
“Why?”
“If you’re not careful you might find him at the business end of one Mana’s rubber bullets if you know what I mean.”
“Asuna! It’s not like that.” Natalie started to look noticeably flustered.
“Yeah you say that but I can see the way he looks at you. I know that look,” Asuna responded as she started to walk around the plaza. Natalie caught up to her and walked beside her as they started to look around and keep an eye out for anyone who looked like they might even think about confessing their feelings.
“Ed wouldn’t, he’s not the kind of guy to do that sort of thing. He’s barely aware of what that emotion is little own able to express it.”
“Let me ask you this though, does he know how you feel about him?”
“Yeah why?”
“Well that makes a difference. One thing I’ve noticed is that if a guy knows how a girl feels and he’s even the least bit open to it, it’ll grow. If not, well, if guys don’t feel it they don’t look at girls the way Edward looks at you.”
Natalie cocked an eyebrow a bit confused. “How would you know? If I’m not mistaken the only guy you’ve ever loved is Takamichi…”
Asuna wheeled around and eyed her. “How do you know about that?”
“That’s my secret Asuna, but it’s not hard to tell just by the way you look when he walks by. So when are you going to tell him?”
It was Asuna’s turn to blush. “I’m supposed to meet up with him on the last day of the festival.”
“Gutsy move confessing during the festival. I think it might be you that ends up on the business end of Mana’s rubber bullets,” Natalie replied with a laugh.
“Speaking of confessions…” Asuna said pointing to two high school kids sitting at one of the patio tables on the plaza. The boy seemed particularly nervous as he sat there talking to the girl.
“I think I got this one,” Natalie said as she put hands together and placed them on the ground. Concentrating she caused the stone under the boy’s chair to grow slightly and topple him over. No one would think anything of it since he’d already been tipping it back when she’d done it.
“Nice one,” Asuna said giving her a high five when she stood back up.
“That should keep him from confessing for a bit. It probably knocked the wind out of him a little too.”
The rest of the time went by pretty quickly. They would get a few more before Setsuna and another teacher that Natalie didn’t know showed up to relieve them. Natalie took a seat on the steps of the plaza and waited for Edward to show up like he’d said he would. She wouldn’t be waiting long though.
“Hey Natalie. How’d it go?” he said with a smile.
“More eventful than your shift but not too bad,” she replied. “Had a chance to use my alchemy a bit too though I think I still need to practice more.”
“You know all you have to do is ask right? I’ll help you practice whenever you want,” he said offering her a hand to help her up.
“I know. Just haven’t really had a chance you know?”
Edward laughed. “Yeah things have been pretty crazy since we left Resembool.”
“Thankfully I’ve been fairing well enough on my own for now. I don’t think I could use it right in a fight though.”
They started walking towards the center of the activities where all the student run booths were. There were all different kinds of things to see, food stands, merchandise made by the various clubs, games, you name it and there was probably a booth here for it.
“This whole thing is really amazing. I’ve never seen a festival of this size before. We don’t have things this elaborate back home,” Edward said, his expression reflecting his words.
As they walked they passed multiple game booths. “Young man! Win a prize for your pretty girlfriend!” one of them called to Edward. “You don’t have to pay if you win!”
Edward couldn’t resist a challenge. “Wait here,” he said as he walked over to the booth.
“Wait a minute Ed, you don’t…”
Edward shook his head. “Just wait there,” he said smiling at her. He then turned his attention to the man behind the booth. The prizes were all sorts of pretty little pieces of jewelry. “What’s the game?” he asked.
The man behind the counter grinned at him. “It’s really very simple. Take this ball and knock down all of the bottles in one shot.”
Edward grinned slyly. Natalie knew that look, he was up to something.
“Alright,” he said clapping his hands together then taking the ball. When he touched it he rearranged the makeup of the ball. When he threw it, it hit dead on and all of the bottles fell. He then stood back; his arms crossed triumphantly and grinned at the guy.
“You’re the first all day to be able to do it, congratulations. Go ahead and pick your prize.”
Edward saw a ring in a little silver box sitting on the shelf. It had a green stone in it that was just about the same color as Natalie’s hair. “That one,” he said pointing to it.
“Good choice young man! Here you are,” he said, handing Edward the box.
“Thanks.” He then turned and went back over to Natalie. She was looking at him a bit annoyed.
“You cheated,” she said softly so no one else would hear her.
“Not really, I did what he said to do. I had to knock all the bottles down in one shot with that ball. There was nothing in the rules that said I couldn’t adjust the composition of the ball so it would be easier to throw and more likely to be accurate,” he said with a grin and handed her the box.
She took the box from him and just shook her head chuckling. “Leave it to you to find and exploit a loop hole.”
He gave that adorably goofy grin of his and nodded. “Hey, I just wanted to win that for you that’s all. Now come on, put it on, and see how it looks.”
Natalie opened up the little box and took the ring out. She had to look at it for a moment to see which finger it was most likely to fit on then slid it onto her right middle finger. It fit perfectly. “It’s really pretty, thank you Ed,” she said with a smile and hugged him.
He hugged her back, holding her close. “I had to do something to make up for being a jerk last night.”
“No you didn’t, but I appreciate that you did,” she said softly. Mana had to have said something to him while they were on patrol this morning. It was the only way she could think of that he’d get an idea like that, though something like this didn’t seem like Mana’s thing either but she was the only one that had seen him long enough this morning that she knew of. It didn’t matter though, she was just glad he’d done it.
They spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around. They even managed to get to the 3-A haunted house before Edward had to leave for his afternoon patrol shift.
“I’ll meet you at the ball tonight alright?” Natalie said as she dropped him off with Takamichi. “Don’t forget, there’s an outfit for you in the closet at home.”
“You got it. I’ll see you then,” he replied with a wave as he and Takamichi walked off.
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