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Wet grass squeaked from under Neon as the female lightly scuffed her shoes against the ground. She had been doing this for at least a good ten minutes, and by now, she was beginning to wonder why she had agreed to waking up when the sun itself was hardly awake. Her shadow-covered shoes were slightly damp from the morning dew clinging to the grass, though she hardly noticed, due to the constant buzz of busy thoughts in her mind. The quiet scenery left her thoughts with too much freedom to wander, and after boredly digging her shoe into the grass for another few agitated seconds, she glanced up to the hushed ocean lapping at the strip of sand separating the island’s greenery from the water.
Despite how early it was, the brightness of the shy sunrise was still enough to make Neon squint. The sun had just begun to peak over the ocean’s horizon, transforming the rippling ocean to a sea of molten gold. Above the horizon, the night sky withdrew from the presence of the sun’s incoming rays, dark navy making way for waves of warm oranges, brilliant yellows, and soft pinks. Following the trails of melting colors above her with her eyes, Neon craned her neck upwards in an effort to spot any stray stars still left in the sky, and as she caught the faint gleam of a particularly bright twinkle, a warm breeze of salty air brushed against her face and bare arms. Her skin tingled from the heat radiating from across the ocean, though she didn’t find it particularly annoying; in fact, it was a very pleasant sensation, given the cool morning air that had first greeted her.
Closing her eyes for a moment, Neon took a slow breath to quell her impatient excitement before antsily kicking at the ground again. Everything right then had been so picturesque, so pretty, so perfect , and she self-imposed the need to make sure that everything about to unfold would also be just as perfect. One hand was curled into a tight, clammy fist, and she absently ran her thumb over her tense knuckles to try and ignore the uncomfortable feeling of persistent restlessness. Perhaps it would’ve been easier to relax if she wasn’t tense, if she had relaxed her fist with a slow sigh– but no , she wouldn’t dare open her fist. Not now, at least; the small little ring inside her hand was an important one, and she would be beyond devastated if she happened to lose before its receiver had even arrived.
After all, the ring was made to seal not an engagement, but a promise between her and Fade, and a very important promise at that. Neon couldn’t afford to drop the ring, at all costs.
And yet, laughably, Neon ironically almost dropped her possession when a hushed voice, the very voice she had been waiting to hear, whispered just behind her ear.
“Boo~”
“ArgH, ANO BA!*-” Zipping a meter or two away from her spot, Neon whipped around with a raised arm poised for attack, ready to punish whoever the hell would dare scare her so damn early in the morning, but upon recognizing the woman responsible for the sudden spook, the fierce glow of Radiant electricity drained from Neon’s arms. At Fade’s playful grin, Neon made a face as a playful little feline, made of spinning black ink and thrumming fuschia smog, ghosted against her shin. “Fade, what the hell!”
Said Initiator hardly kept her laugh contained, flashing the younger a smile that could challenge the sunrise. “Well, that’s certainly a loud way to say good morning. Any louder, and Brimstone might’ve woken up thinking you were about to be murdered.”
“ I thought I was about to be murdered! Gago ka*, almost gave me a heart attack…”
The tiny Prowler reassuringly purred against Neon’s leg.
“Good thing it was just me then, right? I will say though, I’m surprised; I thought you’d be late. You almost never wake up earlier than when you have to.”
“Well!- This is pretty important, I think.”
“What is?”
Opening her fist, Neon pinched the silver ring between two fingers and held it up for both of them to see, while raising an eyebrow accusingly. “Don’t tell me you forgot, huh?”
Fade quickly responded with a chuckle, shaking her head. “Of course I didn’t. Like you said, this is pretty important.”
After another moment longer of faux suspicion, Neon’s face relaxed in relief, and she re-appeared in front of Fade in a colorful flash of Radiance. But before Fade could even open her mouth, the Filipino beat her to the chase, giving the taller female a smug grin.
“Mine first.”
Fade puffed out a sigh, and smiled in what seemed to be relief. “Alright, that’s fine by me.”
“Okay.” Neon held out her hand to Fade assertively. “Give me your hand.”
“Left? Right?”
After eyeing Fade’s hands, Neon uncertainly nodded to Fade’s right hand. “... Riiiiight.”
Fade snickered, compliantly resting her right hand on Neon’s outstretched palm. “Aww, not gonna propose to me just yet, Tala?”
“I- Of course not! We’re not even dating- You just have less rings on your right hand, so! You know, I don’t want my ring to get lost with all the ones on your left. It’s not as special.” Neon rolled her eyes at the female in hopes of downplaying her blush, but rather than feeling offended, Fade didn’t say anything past a fond smile and a brief curl squeeze of their hands to ease the slight jitter in Neon’s hand.
With a slow, shaky breath, Neon bravely continued past her embarrassment. “Uh- So, you can check later– but on the inside of the ring, there’s a phrase in Tagalog. ‘Wala ng iba kundi ikaw’. And it means- it- it means ‘There’s no one else but you.’ I thought it was… fitting. You know, for the promise and the future… and stuff.”
As Neon flusteredly slid the silver ring onto her ring finger with downcast eyes, Fade curiously observed the ring in closer detail, holding up her hand for better inspection once Neon’s busy fingers hesitantly retreated.
In the presence of the sunrise’s warm glow, the relatively simple ring’s silver was painted to radiant gold, greatly contrasting to the dull, black metal band on Fade’s neighboring middle finger. However, unlike the only black ring on her right hand, her new ring had a small, finely-engraved symbol. It had been difficult to deduce what the symbol was when Neon was still pushing the ring onto Fade’s finger, but now, Fade could clearly make out a clean crescent moon, the celestial body Neon so often associated with Fade. A little star hovered in between the curved, tapering ends of the crescent moon, and quickly connecting the dots, Fade realized what Neon had done.
“ Oh , Neon-”
“Ah, that’s right; I wasn’t sure what you’d like, but- I mean, you’re… you know, I always like calling you my moon, and, well your flag- it had a moon. So I thought you might like it.”
Tilting her hand, the Turkish woman observed the orange glisten of the coming sunset reflecting off the polished silver. Ignoring Neon’s startled glance, Fade wiggled off the ring, holding it at eye level and turning slightly until the sunlight lit up the engraved phrase along the inside of the band. God forbade Fade from even attempting to pronounce the Tagalog, but she was already more than satisfied with the memory of the promise that had come from Neon’s lips.
‘Wala ng iba kundi ikaw’
“Is- Is it to your liking?”
“What?” Fade laughed incredulously at the absurd question. “Of course I do. I love it, really.”
Delighted by the positive response, Neon smiled as her nervous apprehension began to melt, becoming nothing more than a useless and forgotten thought in the back of her mind. In its place, giddy excitement took hold of Neon, and the younger female expectantly leaned forward slightly with a teasing smirk.
“Sooooo, I believe there’s supposed to be two rings, not just one, right?”
Fade arched an eyebrow, challenging Neon’s boldness with a playful hum. “Oh, really?”
“Mmmmmmmmhm.”
“Hmmmm. Maybe I brought one, maybe I didn’t; maybe, I forgot it back in the sleeping quarters.”
“You didn’t !” Neon gasped. “If you really did, Fade, I swear-”
“No, God , no, I didn’t!” Laughing as Neon scoffed in mock annoyance, Fade pulled out what Neon assumed was her ring, though the Turkish Initiator still stubbornly stalled on the grand reveal, keeping it hidden in a fist just as Neon had. “But! I do want you to close your eyes while I put it on, okay?”
“Huh? Come on, why is yours so suspenseful compared to mine?! It’s just a promise ring!”
“It’s our promise rings. Just trust me on this one, okay? I think you’ll like it a lot. It might make you laugh too, actually.”
Mimicking Neon’s confident approach, Fade held out her open hand for Neon, patiently waiting for the younger’s pout to subside. When Neon seemed to realize Fade wasn’t going to budge, she begrudgingly conceded, gently resting her right hand against Fade’s palm and shutting her eyes. Her eyelid twitched with the repressed want to immediately snap her eyes right back open.
“Don’t look, or I’m gonna be really sad.”
Neon snorted at the overly sarcastic tone, but she followed Fade’s request, standing still as a warm band of metal slid over her ring finger. Testing the size with a little wiggle of her fingers, Neon was relieved to find that the ring fit snug around her finger, thankfully not too big or too small.
“So, your ring says, ‘Seninle sonsuza kadar’, which means ‘Together forever with you’. And– you can open your eyes, if you promise not to freak out.”
“O-Okay?... I’ll try not to.”
“Promise?”
“... Promise.”
Squinting one eye while hesitantly opening the other, Neon took a slow look at the sun-bathed ring before she snorted in surprise.
She didn’t have to hold up her hand to see the clean design of a very familiar sun. Only half of the sun was showing on the ring, like the sun rising early in the morning above the horizon, but the extending rays were a dead giveaway of the iconic Filipino sun. Fade had been nice enough to even scatter three stars across the surface of the ring to really drive home the familiar symbol, in case Neon had been feeling a bit dense that morning.
“You- You did the flag thing too?! Oh, wow– I didn’t even realize our flags- the coincidence! Who would’ve thought…”
The rising sun seemed to soak into the ring, painting the miniature sunrise on the ring a brilliant gold. Though, upon further scrutinization when she tilted her hand, Neon abruptly stiffened in confusion.
“Huh– Fade, this is gold . I thought… I thought we agreed on silver!”
“We did.” Fade hummed softly, looking away sheepishly. “But it makes more sense now, don’t you think? I’m like the moon, and you’re like the sun; it makes sense that the moon is silver and the sun is gold.”
“But!- Hazal, this is gold ! It’s not just a matter of color… Seriously, I can’t just take this-”
Covering Neon’s hand in her own to prevent Neon from pulling off the ring, Fade gave the younger’s hand a light squeeze while catching her concerned gaze. “No, Tala. Please. I really, really want you to have this; gold suits you well! Not to mention, more than just the material, the rings mean a lot between us.” Unsurely, Fade brought Neon’s hand closer to herself and gave the female’s knuckles a chaste kiss before slowly exposing the ring to both of their eyes; Fade ran a thumb over the gleaming surface and the neat ridges outlining the miniature sun, and Neon, flustered by the sudden affection, silently listened to her. “I really thought hard about this. Look. The sun looks like it’s on the horizon, doesn’t it? It’s because I want you to see it, and to be reminded of pretty sunrises like right now, and to be hopeful for the next sunrise. We just have to wait for the next sunrise when we’ll be together, right?”
Neon’s face was frozen with conflicting guilt and wistful hope, as if she couldn’t decide whether she wanted to take or reject Fade’s gift. Blinking several times, Neon managed to choke out a harsh scoff, though Fade could see her eyes seemed glossier than before.
“I… I can’t believe you. Putting this much thought– into a ring– Hey, you’re starting to make me feel a little stupid over here!”
Neon slowly pulled her hand away from Fade’s, and after fiddling with the golden ring for a moment, a sigh left her lips. “Thank you, really. I.. I don’t know what to say, if I’m being honest.”
“You don’t have to say anything; I just would really hate it if you didn’t like your ring, and it ended up getting thrown out or something… I wanted the best I could get for you.”
“... Well, I do like it, so stop worrying about that!” Hesitating for a moment, Neon firmly continued at a quieter volume. “And I’ll keep it safe. Y’know. For the sunsets and the sunrises and the sappy what-not you were saying earlier. I’ll remember it, so– you better not go back on that!”
“... Söz veriyorum.”
Neon made a face at the unfamiliar language. “Sorry?”
“Söz. Promise. Söz veriyorum. I promise. I promise I won’t go back on my words , if you promise you won’t forget all my ‘sappy what-not’.”
In the wake of Fade’s heartfelt promise, Neon felt her eyes grow warm again, but this time, she was unable to hold her emotions, unable to keep tears from trickling down her cheek. Hiding her face with an abrupt turn of her head, Neon tried to choke out an “I-I’m fine!” as a worried Fade gently rubbed the younger’s shoulder, attempting to soothe the tearful mess she had unintentionally created. Soft words of concern only seemed to quicken Neon’s tears, and in a rush of instinct, she pulled the other female into a tight hug, silently hiccupping against her chest as caring arms held her comfortingly.
And… for as cheesy as it sounded, Neon could’ve stayed there forever, in Fade’s arms.
It’s true that they weren’t lovers, but they weren’t simply friends either. Something, something , had formed between the two, some sort of awful bond that always had Fade and Neon anxiously worrying about each other, or missing each other when they couldn’t be together. And after so long, they had finally figured out what it was.
It was… love. Undeniably, it was love, romantic love; it was the kind of love that made every morning spent together a blessing, the kind that made every moment worth reliving— and they knew it, that they were in love.
And they had promised, that even if they had yet to promise themselves to each other, every day would be a fight for a future where they would be together.
They weren’t lovers– because all that was missing was the title. A title that they had promised they’d take once their jobs had finished, once their lives could handle the responsibilities of a singular lover instead of fighting for the whole world.
Once the Alpha-Omega conflict was over… they had their promise, that they would start their lives again– together .
And just thinking of that future made every coming mission more bearable.
“You’re the worst, making me c-cry in the morning…”
An affectionate hum from Fade’s chest was the only initial response to come from the ol
der female, and with a trembling exhale, Neon sniffled as their embrace soothingly began to sway, like a slow dance to distract Neon from her crying, or like a baby’s cradle to put her at ease.
“I think, I’m fine with being the worst then.”
“... Tangina mo.*”
At the insult, which Neon had said too many times for Fade to not recognize, the older female laughed. After another few minutes of muffled bickering, Neon reluctantly pulled back to wipe away any remaining tears with the back of her left hand, catching Fade busily inspecting the silver promise ring around her ring finger. She seemed so curiously fond of the new addition to her hand adornments, so unusually careful as she gently tilted the ring so that the sun would again light up the carefully chiseled moon. After a last sniffle, Neon cleared her throat importantly to catch the Initiator’s attention, and Fade quickly looked up to Neon’s reddened face slowly calming down from her brief crying session, almost smiling by instinct for how cute she found the young Filipina. She must’ve stared too long, for Neon wrinkled her nose with a snappy “What? Is there something about my face?”
“… You’re cute.”
Neone snorted, almost disapprovingly, but she couldn’t hide the slight flush in her cheeks. She didn’t say anything, only giving a slight pout until Fade cocked her head teasingly.
“So… I already said “Söz veriyorum”– am I ever gonna get my “I promise too” back?”
Neon’s lips parted before her mind could conjure up some sort of shrewd response, the silence gently disturbed by the calm ocean gently lapping at the shore. The air, still thick with morning dew and ocean saltiness, rushed into Neon’s lungs, and as she exhaled with a slight laugh, it quickly turned giggling.
“My God, you’re so impatient ; I just cried, Hazal!”
Neon’s laughter filled Fade with a fond, swelling adoration, tugging at her softened heartstrings and prompting a grin so wide that her cheeks became sore. After all, she hardly dealt with smiles in the first place, so it was strange, to smile so much.
But for Neon… Fade could change that.
She could get used to smiling more often, if it meant hearing Neon’s voice and being filled with the hot swell of undeniable love.
“Well, if that’s how we’re playing it–! Pangako ko rin, Fade. Pangako, promise. Pangako ko, I promise. So, pangako ko rin– I promise too. ”