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It had been nearly ten months since Saiki had given Aiura that dumb little coupon book, which meant they’d been a couple for almost eleven months. Somehow Aiura still hadn’t used every coupon and somehow she hadn’t decided that dating a mostly apathetic and emotionally unavailable telepath was a totally hopeless cause.
Saiki wondered how much faith she had, back when they first started dating, that they would last. That might explain why she didn’t blow through all the coupons in the first few weeks, like Saiki might have guessed she would. But then again, she was convinced that they were soulmates.
Anyway, they were in their final days of their final school year at PK Academy. Other students were planning their futures, but since Aiura already seemed pretty confident about hers, she was pretty unbothered and was just trying to get through these final school days. She wasn’t exactly college material, so she planned to simply keep working as a fortune teller. It was a lucrative business, anyway. In many ways, her financial future was more secure than many of their fellow under-achieving classmates.
Saiki was likewise unbothered, except for by his annoying classmates who were acting even more chaotic and frenetic than usual, which was saying a lot. He needed a break from their constant fretting and dread over their university entrance exam results and job interviews.
Wanna get outta here? Aiura thought at him as the final bell rang that day, signaling their dismissal for the day.
Saiki nodded his affirmation. They met on the roof, easily dodging their distracted, zombie-like piers.
She was leaning over the railing of the roof, reminiscent of when she and Saiki first formally met back in their second year of school. They really look like ants, she thought, and less because her classmates looked small from here, but more because they were scurrying around like bugs.
“Hi,” Saiki said.
“Oh, hey, babe,” she said, turning around, forgetting about her friends’ worries for the moment and taking in the sight of her ever-stoic boyfriend. “I was thinking ‘bout something.” She held a slip of paper out to him.
He took it and read it. Round trip teleportation, wherever you want to go. He looked back at her and waited for her to name her destination.
“I know it kinda implies just one place, but I was kind of hoping for a two-for-one type of deal?” She poked at her cheek innocently, even though she knew begging wasn’t likely to work on him.
Lucky for her, in spite of everything, he actually did like her. He nodded.
She leapt across the short distance between them, clasping her hands on his shoulders. A wind cut across her back and up the back of her sweater. A shiver traveled up her spine to the crown of her head. “Yeesh.”
“Somewhere warm?” Saiki guessed.
She shook her head. “Literally, the opposite.” I wanna see the poles!
“You know Santa isn’t real, right?” Saiki said, surprised by her answer.
She stuck her tongue out at him. Like, duh. Obviously, it’s just to say I’ve done it.
It seemed like a waste of a coupon to Saiki, but it was her choice. It’s not like he cared. Besides, they both wanted to be away from their annoying classmates for a while, and they were pretty likely to be all alone at the literal North Pole.
“Okay,” he agreed. “Want to go tonight?”
Aiura simply shrugged. “Sure.”
“I’ll pick you up at seven,” Saiki said, and with that, their odd date plan was set.
When Saiki showed up to Aiura’s apartment, he was unsurprised to find that she had coordinated an entire polar-themed outfit. Pink snow pants with fuzzy white boots, white mittens, a furry purple coat worn over (with x-ray vision, Saiki could see) a white puffer jacket and long thermal underwear. She capped the look off with a white pom-pom topped hat and giant snow goggles, in a contrasting lime green, similar to the shade that Saiki wore every day.
“That’s all you’re wearing?” Aiura asked, noticing that Saiki was wearing nothing more than a thin jacket, befitting the unseasonably warm late winter day they were experiencing.
“Pyrokinesis,” he reminded her. The temperature at the poles was not really a concern to him, and it shouldn’t be a concern for her either. He would protect her from the freezing cold, from the harsh winds that might otherwise chap her tanned skin. She didn’t need the whole get-up. But it was a fun look, anyway, and Saiki knew she probably had a lot of fun coordinating it.
Oops, right, she thought, scrunching her face up with a feigned embarrassment.
“Ready?” Saiki asked.
She took his hand in hers and nodded, and in a flash they were standing on top of the world.
“Wow,” she said, surveying their surroundings. “There’s not much here.”
Saiki pinched the bridge of his nose. Good grief, what was she expecting.
“It’s peaceful,” she continued, stooping to crush the ice and snow under her mittened fingers. But, like, where are the penguins?
“Penguins don’t live at the North Pole,” Saiki informed her.
She looked up with shock on her face. “Like, seriously?”
“No magic reindeer either,” he teased.
She wrinkled her nose and gave him an irritated smile. Mr. Know-it-all.
Saiki scoffed affectionately, sitting in the snow beside her. They had three minutes to take in the sights, or the lack thereof. A few flags of various nations had been stuck into the ice, blowing in the chilly wind that neither of them could feel in the protective bubble that Saiki made around their bodies. There could be scientists in the area, studying marine life or the area’s soil. But Saiki didn’t see any of them, so he wasn’t concerned about their three-minute visit.
“It’s not as big as I thought it’d be,” Aiura said after a moment of poking the snow.
“Would have been bigger about thirty years ago.”
“Damn global warming.”
“Damn indeed,” Saiki agreed, wondering if his pyrokinesis was contributing to the problem. He checked his watch. “Ready to see some penguins?”
Aiura’s melancholic expression brightened. Hell yeah!
He took her hand and in a moment they were literally as far away as they could possibly be from where they just were, though it didn’t really seem so different, aside from the time of day.
But in the distance, the faint sound of honking penguins could be heard. It sounded like a kazoo being played by a monkey. Aiura started running in the direction of the sound. She peered over a snowbank and saw the flock of flightless birds toddling around each other.
“Aww!” she crooned.
Saiki watched as well. He wasn’t exactly an animal lover. He could hear the thoughts of the male penguins, complaining about being stuck on egg duty, while the females gloated to each other about who laid the biggest egg. Not exactly the most riveting conversation to be listening to, but Aiura was oblivious to the inner workings of the penguin community drama and was just happy to see a few fluffy chicks waddling around.
She turned back to Saiki with stars glistening in her eyes.
Her choice of day trip destinations were odd, but Saiki wasn’t complaining. In the warmth of his pyrokinesis, away from the hustle and bustle of their waning school year, it was nice. The south pole was a luxurious retreat.
Aiura watched with fascination as penguins dove into the icy waters nearby, gasping when they resurfaced and popped back onto land. So frickin’ cute!
They stayed a little longer than three minutes, but eventually the show put on by the oblivious penguins got old. Aiura yawned and Saiki knew that she was ready to head back home.
He took her hand and tugged her more closely than strictly necessary, and in the blink of an eye, they were back at her apartment. She immediately kicked her boots and pants off, shrugged off her coat, and discarded her mittens and goggles, leaving her just in the long underwear, puffer jacket, and pom-pom hat. “That was so awesome!” she said. “Who else at PK can say their boyfriend would literally go to the ends of the earth for them?”
Saiki blushed. So that’s what this was all about, really? All for the sake of a bit of clever word play?
“And I’d go to the ends of the earth for you, too,” Aiura said, taking Saiki’s face between her warm hands.
Saiki averted his eyes. This was embarrassingly romantic. He’d been tricked into a grand gesture.
Aiura laughed, dropping her hands to his waist and snuggling her face into the crook of his neck. “I love you so much,” she said, her voice slightly muffled by the collar of Saiki’s jacket.
He stood stiffly, then brought a hand up to pat her on the back. “Yeah, yeah,” he said. “It’s not a big deal.”
It was a lie, though. It was a huge deal. The teleportation, of course, was mere child’s play for him, but the fact that he volunteered to do it in the first place was truly remarkable. When it came to Aiura, he didn’t take that much convincing. After almost a year together, it was all getting easier, too. Being a boyfriend, at least Aiura’s boyfriend, wasn’t really that bad.
“I love you too,” he said, the words coming out of him before he had time to second guess it.
Aiura pulled back and looked at him with eyes as wide as the moon. It’d been implied, but he’d never really said it before, not so plainly. Then her expression softened. Well, like, duh, she thought. It really was that obvious. Metaphorically or literally, he’d do anything for her. Even without a coupon.