The Long-Awaited Aibou Day Results

Today was spectacular!

There's nothing like spending a little hikari/yami time to just slow down and take things a minute at a time, you know? We get so caught up in spending time with all our other friends, being at our respective jobs (if we have them), and hanging around with our folks that it's hard sometimes to just sit with each other. You'd think it wouldn't be so difficult, but as they say, life gets in the way of things.

This morning, I picked up my favorite bleary-eyed yami at 9AM and took her to breakfast. It went like this.

"Good morning! Happy Aibou Day!" Insert my enthusiastic hug here.

"Mm."

"Let's go to Manhatten Bagel and then cross the street to Starbucks for some coffee."

"MMMMM!" Insert her enthusiastic hug here.

After she had a bagel and some coffee in her (and I a bagel with creamcheese and some hot chocolate), we came back to my house to watch some, er, House. There's nothing better than watching House with some comfort food and drink. After we watched our favorite episode, it was around 10:30 so we trooped over to the mall to beat the crowd and get our ears pierced. I was slightly terrified, but Marlie was encouraging ("I've heard cartilage piercings don't hurt at all, hikari!") and a liar. Okay, it didn't hurt that much. I barely cried. Here's the end result. The hoop's a little bigger on my ear than I thought it would be. Apparently, I have very small ears (so that lady told me). Marlie inspected my ear and declared it was gorgeous.

In fact, she was so impressed with my piercing that she decided that screw double holes on her lobes, she was getting the same thing as me. I got mine in my left ear. She got hers on her right, not as a hoop, but as a little midnight-blue stud. It looks really pretty, but she wouldn't let me take a picture.

While we were walking back to the car, I took out the little recipe book I'd made and she picked out peanut butter cookies. By then, it was almost 11:30, so we drove to the store, picked up ingredients, and drove to Panera for lunch. It's a bread, soup, and salad place that's absolutely delicious. My favorite combination is a chicken ceasar sandwich with a chicken ceasar salad. Repetitive, yes. Repetitively yummy, yes yes. Marlie prefers the black bean soup in a bread bowl, which is also good.

And now, the most exciting part: what we did for Marlie's afternoon with me. First of all, we climbed into the car and she shoved me out of the seat.

"Hey-"

"Put this on. I'm driving." She held out a blindfold.

"Uh?"

"Just do it." So I slid over into the passenger seat and put on the blindfold, feeling absolutely ridiculous. She started the car and began driving.

"Where are we going?"

"It's a surprise."

We must have had that conversation four times at least. The car ride was long! After about an hour, we parked somewhere and I cocked my head. I could hear people screaming and shouting- it sounded like a big ol' crowd. "Where are we?"

"Just wait." I heard her car door slam, and then she was over on my side. "Get out."

I obediently climbed out of the car and stood uncertainly in... somewhere. I tapped my foot on the ground. Concrete. I sniffed the air... popcorn?

"Come on." Marlie's hand caught mine and tugged. I walked after her, feeling for each footstep.

"Heh. Your nostrils are flaring. What do you smell?" She was enjoying this, naturally.

"Popcorn. Exhaust... cotton candy?" I listened hard. My hearing sucks, but I could definitely hear a clacking noise underlying everything. "What is that noise?"

"Hm." I could practically feel the ear-to-ear grin she had on. "You'll see." She stopped me and began talking with some guy.

"Two, please."

"That'll be $44.50."

"Thanks."

"Where are we?" I asked, bemused, and the guy she had been talking to chuckled.

"Don't say a word," I heard Marlie instruct him. We walked through one of those turnstile things, and I still had no idea where we were. We could be anywhere. What was an hour from my house that would be like this? I was stumped.

"Can I take this off?"

"Just a few more minutes," she promised. "Then you'll take it off anyway."

That made me nervous.

"Will I like this?" I asked suspiciously.

"Oh, yeah."

"You're positive?"

"Uh-huh."

"Okay."

We kept walking, hand in hand, and I could feel the sun on my face, the breeze in my hair, and the smell wafting by of... pool water? What?

"What the hell?" I finally said, and Marlie laughed.

"Here we are." I could definitely smell some kind of gasoline or motor scent now. "Don't take it off yet," she added, swatting my hands away from the ends of the blindfold. "One minute more, tops."

A whole bunch of people were talking in front of us, and I tried to listen in, but I couldn't quite catch what they were saying. "No listening," Marlie said strictly as soon as she saw. "Stuff your hands in your ears."

"You're kidding me." I felt her take my hands and place them over my ears. "Good god, woman."

I heard the faint sound of her laughing once again, and then we shuffled forward. We headed up a ramp, then turned 180 degrees into a corner and walked further up the other way. Then we turned and walked the same distance the opposite direction, still getting higher up each time. "Are we in some kind of line?" I asked, pretty loudly because I couldn't hear myself. No one answered (that I could hear, anyway). I opened my eyes under my bandanna and tried futilely to see anything. It was an effective blindfold.

Finally, Marlie helped me into some sort of seat, taking care that I wouldn't touch the edges with my fingers to see what it was. I plopped down and felt her sit next to me, rather close. I took my fingers out of my ears. Something metallic clicked near my ear. "What was that?"

"Nothing. Don't move an inch."

"Why?" I was fairly panicked now.

"Hikari," she purred, nearly in my ear. "Trust me." Nearby, someone laughed.

Abruptly, the seat I was in began to move with an almost-familiar clack. I was in some sort of train. We swerved to the left and then began clacking upwards, being pulled by a chain. And then I KNEW!

I ripped off the blindfold. "YES!" Marlie giggled hysterically beside me as I bounced up and down in excitement. "We're on the Phoenix! We're on the Phoenix!" The Phoenix is an amazing rollercoaster at a nearby amusement park. Which we were at. Which I was on!

The afternoon was spent going on every roller coaster in the park and quite a few of the other rides. We then came home and baked cookies for dinner. She dropped me off about an hour ago and I am now completely pooped. I'm going to bed at eight tonight.

That's in eleven minutes.

'Night.

Myth #3

Marlie just left and we've agreed that since we're both free on Tuesday, that will be the epic Aibou Day. Aibou, for anyone who doesn't go on Fanfiction.net religiously, kind of means "partner". Writers on there use it a lot to describe the relationship between Yugi/Yami, which is I guess as close to ours as the show gets. Marik/Malik are a little too violent to be us (let's face it, Marik was slightly messed up to begin with) and Ryou and Bakura's relationship is too love-hate. I like to think that Marlie and I are partners in some grand scheme. Like Holmes and Watson. Calvin and Hobbes. Just a great duo. Plus, the word 'ai' is in aibou, which I'm almost certain is Japanese for "love". That works for me.

On Tuesday, I get the morning to take Marlie to breakfast and we do whatever I want (really, that means whatever I want to do for her), have lunch at Subway (a place we both enjoy), and then the afternoon and dinner are hers. It'll be good for us to spend a whole day together. We'll be going back to school so soon, and to answer a question I got emailed today: no. We don't go to the same college. I don't even want to write about it until I have to.

Myth #3. Hikaris are physically weak. Yamis are physically strong, and they are at least stronger than their hikari.

I'm so glad someone actually voted! Thank you so much, anonymous person. Anonymous thought that the above is a fact.

S/he was half-right, half-wrong.

More like 2/3 right and 1/3 wrong.

Hikaris are not physically weak. I wholeheartedly deny that I am weak! For christ's sake, I can run six miles in an hour without feeling sore the next day. I don't consider that weak. In addition, I'm on my college rowing team and we get on those rowing machines even in the winter off-season. That sport is friggin' hardcore. I must have some kind of inner strength because it's a sport where supposedly tall people do the best (I'm 5'2", you'll remember) and I kick some of those tall people's asses when it comes to technique and endurance.

On the other hand... Marlie is one buff chick.

It's not obvious when you look at her. She's definitely not that stereotypical scary-wrestler- Amazon woman. She's only about an inch or so taller than me. How strong could she be, right? The answer is incredibly strong. She's been horseback-riding for about 10 years now. That takes care of her 110% muscle legs (and it's where I get mine as well. I introduced her to the sport. The difference is that I stopped riding a few years ago and she's still going at it).

Marlie also works at her barn to pay for lessons. Barn work includes lifting heavy water buckets, mucking stalls (horse poop is heavy!), and wrestling with misbehaving stallions. I'm so envious because her arms are fucking chiseled. Not with huge muscles, but the scarier kind- lean muscles. I think that if she were paralyzed except for the use of one arm (right or left, it doesn't matter. I've lost in arm wrestling to both), she could still kill you in under a minute just by breaking something off. Because she watches medical shows, she even knows exactly what to break off.

So, okay, she's probably somewhere between two to three times as strong as I am. But hey! That does not mean I'm weak. Well, my arms are by now because I've done absolutely nothing with them over the summer, but I graduated from a kickboxing class and my legs are F-I-T fit. So, uh, shut the fuck up. I'm not weak. Why do I feel like I'm typing defensively?

Here's the myth to vote about for tomorrow.

Myth # 4 Preview: Yamis are impervious to pain. They ignore it. Hikaris will cry at the slightest wound. They complain about it.

While you're musing on that, check out the album Under the Iron Sea by Keane. Really chill music. I especially like the songs Atlantic, Is it Any Wonder, Nothing in My Way, Hamburg Song, Crystal Ball, and The Frog Prince. Er. Which is about half the CD. And I like the other ones almost as much. Download now!