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Shrub fed a last slice of meat to the wolves, giving Sun a scratch behind the ears. A small group of people were crowded around the enclosure to see the wolves eat, Shrub sighed internally, they hated when they had to talk to people, but their smile didn’t drop. This is not part of my job description.
“What are the wolves’ names?” A girl in the crowd asked.
Same question every time, without fail. “This is Sun, the mother of most of the wolves you see here, we also have Moon, the father, and then we have three of their pups on exhibit, Gemini, Mars, and Pluto.”
A few more questions were thrown at them, most of them simple. Finally the crowd died down, Shrub breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to the wolves, filling up their water bowls. Gemini pressed against their legs affectionately, Shrub scratched her chin and her tail wagged faster than Shrub’s eyes could keep up with.
“Are they that nice to everyone?” Shrub startled at the voice, looking up to the girl who’d asked the first question.
“You can’t pet them if that’s what you’re asking, and these wolves were born in captivity, so yes, they are fairly docile,” Shrub answered, keeping her annoyance out of her voice.
“What enrichment is given to them?” Her head was slightly tilted, staring intently at the wolves with genuine interest.
Shrub blinked, looking at her again, people didn’t tend to ask those questions unless they also took care of animals, “A couple of different options, sometimes we freeze their food, we hide food and let them hunt for it, chew toys, bones, sometimes hidden animal scents for something to be changed up.”
The girl’s friends came up behind her, “Are you going to come with us or flirt with the zookeeper, Katherine?” said a tall pink haired girl, laughing.
Katherine blushed bright red and walked away with them.
Shrub gave the wolves a couple of final pets and walked out of the enclosure. She walked into the main building, Scar was organizing biofacts and gave them a small wave. Shrub walked through to the building where they kept the ambassador animals.
Shrub walked to the off-exhibit wolves, grabbing a harness and calling Taurus over to her. She trotted over and let Shrub slip the harness on. Taurus was the ambassador animal for the wolves, so Shrub got to walk her around the zoo and let people meet her.
Taurus had a bad habit of pulling at the leash at the start, so Shrub made her stand still for a few seconds before walking out the door. Taurus trotted out well-manneredly, passing by Joey with a hornbill, coming in from working with it as an ambassador animal.
“I saw you flirting with a guest,” He teased, stroking the hornbill’s head.
“If by flirting you mean answering questions about wolves then yeah,” Shrub glared at him.
“Disappointing, have fun,” Joey walked past her to put the hornbill up.
Shrub pushed open the door to the outside zoo, Taurus sniffed at the air, drawing the attention of guests. Little kids ran over to see the wolf, Taurus took steps back to not let them pet her.
“We can’t touch Taurus unfortunately,” Shrub waved some kid’s hands away, then they went back to their walk. She walked her to the center of the zoo, there was a small concrete area for the ambassador animals and Taurus took a step up on it.
The kids who had been following them finally crowded around the area.
“This is Taurus, one of our ambassador animals, she’s a gray wolf, her mother and father are in the wolf exhibit, their names are Sun and Moon. Taurus is 2 years old,” Shrub stopped, their eyes drawing to a group in the back, Katherine was in the back with her friends, Shrub didn’t normally remember guest's names, it was throwing them off. “Gray wolves are a member of the canine family which includes dogs, coyotes, jackals, and others.”
“Can she do tricks?”
“Not the tricks you’re thinking of, all her training is to make her good for vet visits or for being an ambassador animal,” Shrub held a hand in front of Taurus, she sat, so Shrub slipped her a treat.
She went through the motions for the rest of the demonstration, it was stupid to have a crush on someone you’ve spoken to once, so this wasn’t a crush, Shrub’s eyes just kept drawing to Katherine because she was pretty, purely aesthetics.
-
Katherine was regretting agreeing to go to the zoo. Jimmy had wanted to go, so of course Lizzie had gone, and then Joel was obviously going to go, and Katherine had been invited and she was excited, so of course her day had to be ruined by a pretty zookeeper who didn’t remember her at all.
It wasn’t like she kept a record of everyone she went to highschool with, she just remembered Shrub because she’d had a huge crush on her all four years. Which sounded very stalkery now that she thought about it. Shrub had been a little bit of a loner, she mostly hung out with Joey and that was the only person Katherine had ever seen them talk to.
“Katherine?” Lizzie waved a hand in front of her face, bringing her back to reality, Jimmy and Joel stared, completely fixated, at a cod swimming in an aquarium.
“Huh?” Katherine asked.
“I’m teasing you about your crush on a zookeeper, you really love anyone who loves animals.”
Katherine sighed, “Shut up.”
Lizzie’s demeanor changed, “You ok?”
“No! I just,” Katherine clenched her hands together in frustration, “I keep seeing her everywhere and she doesn’t even remember me and she’s thriving and perfect and happy and I’m just… you know.”
“Sounds like your gifted kid burnout starting,” Lizzie elbowed Katherine, trying to get her to perk up.
“Gem’s doing fine, Scott’s doing fine, they were a lot more gifted than me,” Katherine sat back against a wall.
“Gem’s a teacher and Scott’s pining after my brother, they are not doing fine.”
“What about Scott?” Jimmy popped up between the two girls.
“Nothing,” Lizzie walked back to the aquarium, dropping the conversation.
-
“You gotta buy something,” Pearl tapped her fingers against the table impatiently, “I already let you stalk your brother here, you could at least get a water or something.”
“Yeah ok, I’ll have a water, thank you,” Scott muttered, handing over some money, his eyes entirely focused on Joey, who was waiting for Xornoth. Pearl rolled her eyes and walked away.
He felt a tap on his shoulder and jumped, looking back at a giggling Shrub, “You’re so easy to scare.”
“Maybe if you made noise when you walked like a normal person,” Scott grumbled, “Pearl finally got tired of me and made me buy something.”
“Shocking, you mean she didn’t want you taking up a seat that a paying customer could have?” Shrub sat down beside him, “Joey’s like 15 minutes early, is he insane?”
“Your roommate,” Scott shrugged.
Nobody in the restaurant even flinched when screaming came from the back room, “Sausage!” Fwhip was yelling, “Did you break the ice cream machine again! You know I have to fix that.”
“Maybe try fixing it so it doesn’t break so easily!” He yelled back.
“Can you two shut up, some of us are trying to actually work!” Scott heard the noise of something being thrown across the room.
“Such a romantic restaurant, I totally get why Joey brings Xornoth here,” Shrub commented.
“Great for people watching though.” The only reason Scott and Shrub basically stalking Joey and Xornoth was allowed was because it was half of the reason people came here, it wasn’t even a bad part of town or anything, Gem, Sausage, Fwhip, and Pearl were just ready to fight a customer at any notice.
The door dinged as Xornoth entered, Scott couldn’t hold back his glare as Joey ran to greet him. He didn’t trust his brother to not be playing some kind of con to hurt Joey, and of course Shrub was here because she was nosy and often bored (her words). Seemed a weird choice to entertain yourself, but he was doing the same thing.
Pearl walked up to the two as they sat down, Shrub’s ears pointed towards them but Scott could barely hear what they were saying over everyone else talking. Lucky wolf hybrid.
It was over an hour before the two got out of their seats and separated to go home, Scott started to get up while Shrub stretched. “When are we going to stop?”
“Huh?”
“Stalking them, how long until you stop being so anxious about Xornoth, it’s been over a year, this cannot be healthy,” Shrub picked up her water and took a sip.
“I don’t trust Xornoth, he’s going to hurt Joey!” Scott felt his breathing quicken, of course he didn’t trust Xornoth, he was one thousand percent going to kill Joey.
“Scott,” Shrub placed a hand on his shoulder, which wouldn’t have been weird if she wasn’t over two feet shorter than him, “I think you should see a therapist.”
“Don’t patronize me,” Scott shrugged their hand off.
“You don’t even know what that word means, you just heard Gem say it.”
“I do read you know, also that’s a common word I know what it means,” Scott walked out of the door, leaving Shrub behind.
-
Shrub started to walk away, she’d try to beat Joey home to avoid suspicion, she wasn’t really worried about Xornoth, she just liked prying into her best friend’s love life and hanging out with Scott, and she got to do both with this arrangement, but gods she was getting tired of Scott’s paranoia.
They were far too distracted with their own thoughts that they managed to run into someone. “Sorry,” they muttered.
“Sorry,” the other girl said at the same time, “Impressive how I keep running into you, it’s like a book trope.”
“Uh huh, yeah, wait, do I know you?” Shrub scanned her brain, this was the girl from the zoo wasn’t it? They’d met once, that was barely qualification for knowing each other.
“We went to high school together? I’m Katherine,” Katherine extended her hand for a hand shake, which Shrub declined because they had know idea who this girl was.
“I spoke to like 2 people throughout all of high school, that doesn’t really help.”
Katherine shifted uncomfortably, Shrub saw her blushing and glance at something behind her, “I’m one of Scott’s friends, you were hanging out with him right, you know he has a crush on Jimmy right? Me and his sister are trying to get them to admit they like each other, gods this is such a weird thing to ask I should have just had Lizzie do this, could you maybe, try to convince him to ask out Jimmy? Jimmy’s never going to do it.”
Shrub took a step back, this girl was clearly uncomfortable with talking to them, although they couldn’t guess why. It seemed a simple request, “Ok, sure, I’ll try.”
Shrub opened the door to a Xornoth and Joey cuddling on the couch.
“Shub!” Joey’d misheard their name the first time they met and now he called her that as a nickname, even though she’d pointed out multiple times that both the nickname and her name were one syllable. “Where were you?”
“Getting involved in a plot to get Scott to get a boyfriend apparently,” Shrub said with a sigh, collapsing on the couch opposite Joey and Xornoth’s.
“How are the wolves? Haven’t seen you since you took out Tarus.”
“Great, how are your little raptors?”
“Lucy’s been approved as an ambassador animal, I get to show her to a girl scout troop tomorrow!” Joey tapped his foot against the floor in excitement.
“Finally! Wish could be there to see it, you’ve gotta tell me how it goes.” Shrub smiled and yawned, “I’m gonna go to sleep, if you guys wake me up there will be consequences.”
“Ok, don’t die.”
-
Scott had barely made it 10 steps outside before Lizzie grabbed his arm.
“Scott, I need to talk to you,” Scott nearly had a heart attack, he knew exactly what this had to be about.
“I swear I don’t have a crush on your brother I promise!”
Lizzie rolled her eyes, “I know you like him, he likes you too, I’m just begging one of you to ask the other out, everyone is going crazy watching you two idiots. So I’m completely done with hinting, Jimmy likes you, please ask him out.”
“You’ve hated the idea of Jimmy dating literally anyone, I’m not falling for this so you have an excuse to punch me.”
Lizzie sighed, “You are so suspicious, it’s not healthy, I want you two to stop desperately pining after each other.”
Scott took a step back,”Whatever, just let me go home
-
“Lizzie and Joel should be home by now. Jimmy hated when they didn’t get back on time because he couldn’t stop his anxiety riddled brain from screaming a million bad things that might have happened.
“What if they’re dead,” Jimmy paced the floor, Norman just gave a small meow in response.
Jimmy flopped down on the couch, Norman reacted as if he'd been killed by his resting place being slightly disturbed. He marched over to Jimmy and cuddled up to him.
“You're right, I'm getting anxious over nothing, they're probably just stuck in traffic, I'll wait 10 more minutes before assuming they're dead.” That was a good, healthy reaction he decided.
The door creaked open and Jimmy jumped up. Lizzie swung open the door, ducking to fit her head under the too-short doorframe. “You’re not dead!” He ran up and hugged his sister.
“Nope, not yet anyway,” Lizzie bent down and scratched Norman’s ears as he purred and pressed against her legs.
“Where were you?” Jimmy picked up Norman.
“Just… out with Joel,” Her eyes darted around, Jimmy tilted his head, she was lying, but why would she be? “How was your night? Did you get in contact with Scott?”
“No,” Jimmy’s heart dropped, “He’s not texting me back at all, I’m sure he was busy and I’m overtexting and annoying him, but like, couldn’t I get a short response? Even hitting the quick reply options would be better.”
“That coward,” Lizzie muttered.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
-
Scott stared at Jimmy's texts, a half written confession in the drafted text. His finger hesitated over the send button, then moved to backspace and deleted it. He was such a coward, everyone knew he liked Jimmy, he was sure Jimmy knew it too, and he would have mentioned something if he liked him back, which must mean he was obviously disgusted with him and hoped to never see him again.
Then why would he text you like that. Complained a voice that sound insultingly like Shrub
Shut up. He thought, turning his attention back to the text.
Poppy: Sorry for not texting back, I was with Shrub
Jimmy's next text made him feel pathetic, he texted back so quickly, he was such a good texter, he bet he never left anyone on read. Jimmy was too good for that.
Pufferish: totally fin
Pufferish: fine*
Poppy: Are you free tomorrow? Around noon? Want to get coffee or something
Pufferish: YES!!!! ABSOLUTELY
Pufferish: sorry caps lock
Scott sighed, he’d gotten his hopes up that he’d been excited, but it was just a mistake.
-
He sounded so desperate, that caps lock lie didn't hide him for a second. Scott was so smart he'd never fall for that. He was so excited to be invited at all that he was overreacting. This was a friendly invite that meant nothing to Scott he was sure.
“Scott texted you back?” Lizzie asked from the other room.
“How’d you know?”
“You emitted a noise at a frequency that only dogs can hear.”
“Rude,” Jimmy turned back to his phone, Scott was texting again.
Poppy: Do you have a preference of where we go?
How could he respond to this while sounding both chill and not making him think he wasn’t interested? “Anywhere you want,” would sound like he was just getting dragged along for the ride, but he didn’t want to take all the control of where they were going.
Pufferish: anywhere but Pearl’s, Fwhip still hates me
Was that good? He was expressing interest but not telling him exactly where they should go? Or maybe he was bringing negativity into the conversation, he knew Scott got along well with Gem, but did he like Fwhip? He couldn’t imagine Gem and Fwhip separately. So he must hang out with them both.
Pufferish: nothing against you if you like him I promise
Poppy: Haha no it’s fine
Poppy: I don’t really know him
Jimmy breathed a sigh of relief, that was a weight off his shoulders.
Pufferish: so noon tomorrow?
Poppy: Absolutely!
Was that a quick response option? Or was that just how he texted? He clearly wasn’t that excited about this then. But he’d suggested it? Was he regretting it because of how excited Jimmy was?
-
Shrub’s phone dinged with a text message. They pulled it up and it was from an unknown number.
???: Scott and Jimmy are texting, They might be Organizing something
???: WHo’s the fourth number
???: Shrub, I added them so they could see our chat.
Shrub: Who is everyone?
After they’d gotten everyone’s contacts sorted out, they immediately went back to their “plan.”
Lizzie: Me and Joel are going on a Date, so Kat and Shrub can you watch Scott and Jimmy on their date? See how close we are?
Shrub: Is that a two person mission?
Lizzie: Not really but I ship you two
Shrub: We’ve met like twice.
-
Katherine’s hyperventilating was shaking her whole bed. She hurriedly typed out a text to Shrub.
Katherine: I'm so sorryaboutt Lizzie i oromisn shes just weird
Mushroom: It’s fine lol, I got that vibe
Katherine sighed and moved to Lizzie.
Flower Kat: What the hell
Ocean Queen: What?
Flower Kat: Why would you say that
Ocean Queen: Cause it’s true
Shrub finally texted the groupchat back. Katherine sighed to know that she wasn’t so angry that she was ignoring the chat.
Mushroom: I'm fine with that arrangement but don’t ship us
Flower Kat: Yeah that’s weird Liz
Ocean Queen: You guys hate fun
Flower Kat: Ok then, I’m going to start shipping Joel and Sausage
Ocean Queen: Have they even met?
Terracotta: Not personally but as far as I’m concerned all the Roses are the same anyways.
Future boy: Rude.
Flower Kat: I keep forgetting you’re in this chat Pix, you never text
Future boy: Be more interesting then.
Terracotta: You study rocks
Future boy: Goodbye.
Mushroom: What the hell was that
Ocean Queen: Our local cryptid
-
Katherine and Shrub met a little bit before Scott and Jimmy were scheduled to get there. Shrub was definitely not as invested as they were in the two’s love life, and Katherine didn’t seem to be either. So while they waited for Jimmy and Scott, they started talking on their own.
“You said we went to the same high school right?” Shrub asked.
“Yeah,” Katherine turned away, blushing. “You didn’t really take time to get to know people.”
Shrub narrowed her eyes, she wasn’t an idiot, Katherine clearly had a crush on her. They didn’t know why, since they’d never really spoken. Shrub wasn’t one for crushes and she couldn’t imagine anyone having a crush on her, they were just too quiet for anyone to really like. Where was the appeal in that for a popular, kind, and beautiful girl like Katherine?
“I didn’t really like school,” Shrub said, trying to put Katherine at ease.
“Oh,” Katherine nodded slightly, “Why not?”
Oh why had she mentioned that, how the hell were they going to answer that without trauma dumping. “Just had a bit bigger things to worry about, School felt like an 8 hour long distraction.”
“Aren’t you a zoologist now? That requires some level of formal education, you couldn’t have been that bad.”
“I’m plenty smart, just not in a way that teachers like,” Shrub forced a laugh, that wasn’t the reason and they knew it. “What do you do for work?”
“I just work as a hand at a farm, it’s just for plants, I’m not strong enough to deal with animals, I just plant and pick strawberries all day,” Katherine answered. Of course she worked at a farm, because the universe hated them,
“Planting is hard work, don’t downplay it,” Shrub was unfairly pissed about that, obviously Katherine knew what farming crops was like, she worked on a farm. Shrub was being unnecessarily rude to Katherine for just talking.
“Did you ever do any farm work?” It was just an innocent question, Katherine wasn’t doing anything wrong.
But that didn’t clear the smell of smoke out of her lungs. That didn’t stop the images of her parents disappearing into flames.
“Shrub?” Katherine took one of Shrub’s hands, “You ok?”
Shrub startled at the contact, “Yeah,” Force a smile. “Just zoned out for a second.”
Katherine stopped talking as Scott and Jimmy walked in. Shrub took a deep breath in, she’d gone to therapy too long to be freaking out over this.
-
Scott’s hand felt too sweaty holding Jimmy’s. Jimmy didn’t seem to notice, always pulling him close and never letting go of his hand the entire time. Jimmy must be so much more confident than him, or maybe he just didn’t think about it because he didn’t like Scott like that. Scott was being weird trying to force romance into this situation, Jimmy was just a friend.
“Why’d you, uh, invite me?” Jimmy asked with maybe the same nervousness Scott had, but what was the answer he was nervous about receiving? Or was he reading him completely wrong?
“Just wanted to hang out with you,” Scott said in a practiced tone. He didn’t think he was imagining Jimmy’s face slightly falling.
“Is that it?” Jimmy asked, he sounded like he was reading from a script, or at least, following someone else’s prompts on what he should say, but it did sound like he had some genuine emotion behind it. If only Scott could read emotions.
“Not really the only reason,” Scott blushed, looking down at their hands intertwined.
“I like you,” Jimmy blurted out. “Like, like-like you.”
Scott’s heart rate sped up, what did you say in response to that?
“I’m so sorry,” Jimmy dropped Scott’s hand. It felt cold in the air without his warmth. “I didn’t- gods I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t- don’t be,” was all Scott could say. “Reciprocated.” What the hell Scott, who says that, he was terrible at this.
“Oh, uh,” Jimmy stuttered, Scott had ruined it hadn’t he? “Does that make this a date?”
“If you want it to be.”
“I would love it to be.”
And then they were kissing. He didn’t remember who had leaned in first, just that one of them had closed the gap. Scott had kissed a lot of boys, but Jimmy felt different somehow. Scott was flirty, but he’d never pined after someone like with Jimmy, for once, it felt like he had something to lose, not just something to gain. Jimmy’d been a few months of staring from a distance, a few months of being friends, a few months of cautiously flirting in a jokey way, and then now. Maybe it wasn’t really the kiss, but the finality that they both liked each other, no matter what happened, at least the feelings were out in the open.
-
Katherine tapped her foot excitedly, hurriedly texting Lizzie and Joel.
Flower Kat: THey’re kissing!!!!!!
Ocean Queen: Oh gods! Finally! Are they going to start dating?
Flower Kat: Dunno, but they’re closer than before
Katherine looked back at Shrub, “Uh, do you want to, uh, well since they’re admitting their feelings, I don’t think we need to watch anymore, do you want to go somewhere?” Why was she so awkward? What was wrong with her?
Shrub nodded, with what Katherine thought was fake enthusiasm, “Do you have anywhere specifically?”
“Oh uh, no, do you?”
“I have a hike I really like, it’s not a lot of walking it’s more bouldering and then at the top you get to see a gorgeous waterfall but that’s just what’s on my mind it’s totally fine if you don’t want to I mean I barely know you I don’t even know if you like hiking it was just a suggestion,” Shrub spoke quickly, blurring her words together like Katherine did when she was nervous.
“No I love hiking,” Katherine smiled, Shrub took a deep breath and relaxed.
“Ok, yeah, let’s go then,” Shrub smiled and stood up, taking Katherine’s hand.
-
Shrub was definitely only nervous because Katherine had a crush on her, because having a crush on someone you just met is completely ridiculous. Also because she was sharing one of her favorite activities with someone who might not enjoy it. No other reasons at all she was sure.
Katherine trailed slightly behind Shrub as they led her to the start of the path. It started with a thin dirt path, the forest was already gorgeous, lush green plants nestled up close to trees, birds singing to each other in the background. Shrub took a deep breath in, the humid air filling their lungs. They looked back at Katherine, who had a nervous smile.
“This is gorgeous, how did I not find this on my own,” She bent down to a small fern and gently lifted the leaf, muttering to herself.
“I always choose the least popular spots, sometimes there’s a reason no one likes them, but I’d rather hike a bad trail than hike with a bunch of other people,” Shrub had been to almost every trail in the area and this one was still their favorite.
“This one’s definitely the prettiest I’ve seen, why don’t more people come here?”
“You’ll see once we get to that part.”
Katherine was a slow hiker, she stopped every few seconds to look at a plant of some sort. Shrub was usually annoyed by slow hikers, but Katherine didn’t somehow. They slowly made their way through the easy part of the trail, Shrub’s least favorite part. They were always slightly ahead of Katherine, but never too far.
The path opened out to a steep incline dotted with rocks. Katherine stared up at it and Shrub couldn’t help but smile. They took the first step up the incline and although her foot started to slip in the loose dirt, they pushed down with their toes to stay up. She followed with another step, putting all her weight on one foot and taking another step, it was a technique she’d had to learn in order to not slide down the path.
Katherine, on the other hand, was grabbing onto any sturdy plants to try and steady herself. “I think you failed to mention that it’s a 90 degree angle.”
“It’s maybe 60 at absolute most, I don’t know angles, dig in with your feet more and you won’t need those plants,” Shrub took another step, slowly, letting Katherine stumble a bit until she figured it out.
Shrub and Katherine reached a flat part, high up. Shrub held onto a pine tree as she looked over the cliff. Katherine was more tentative to go close to the edge. “Wow,” she whispered.
The view was gorgeous, miles in every direction, painted pink by the sunset. The town was behind them, so all they got was countryside. The only dottings of humanity were long roads leading outside the city. Low flying bird circled below them, which Katherine was amazed by, taking a step closer to the edge. Shrub sat down, their feet dangling above the open air below them. Katherine was a bit more scared, hugging onto a close tree when she sat down beside them.
“We can go higher if you’d like, there’s a much better view,” Shrub pointed at the path that continued to ascend.
Katherine laughed, “No breaks? That path was directly up, I need a breather.”
“We totally don’t have to, I wasn’t forcing you or anything, we can just stay here,” Shrub backtracked
“Yeah, I’d like to just sit here for a bit.”
Shrub felt her and Katherine’s shoulders leaned against each other. A light breeze stirred the branches, rustling the leaves. They sat there, Katherine kept her eyes on the sunset, but Shrub’s eyes kept drawing back to her. Her hair was slightly wavy, and looked unkempt from the hike, Shrub thought it was infinitely prettier than when she had it all neat and brushed.
-
Shrub was so close, leaning against Katherine. Should she move away? Katherine took one glance over at Shrub, nearly meeting her eyes, but Shrub looked away quickly. She had to hate her then, otherwise she would have met her eyes.
The logical part of her brain was telling her that Shrub wouldn’t have agreed to hang out with her if she hated her, but they’d just met and she was probably just being polite. It was really weird of Katherine to have been paying so much attention to her anyway, since she’d barely known them.
Shrub rested her head on Katherine’s shoulder and she froze. What was she supposed to do now? Katherine’s eyes laser focused on the sunset, trying not to move. They sat there until the sun fully dipped below the horizon, when Shrub stood up and offered a hand to help Katherine.
“We should probably start heading back now,” Shrub seemed unphased by the casual intimacy, maybe that was just how she showed affection and Katherine was being weird for looking into it that much.
“Yeah,” Katherine said in what she hoped was a casual tone.
The two began to descend the hill, Katherine slipped multiple times, tumbling a couple of feet before getting her balance. It didn’t hurt her physically, but she was more worried about what Shrub was thinking.
When they reached the bottom, Shrub’s hand slipped into her’s, and they walked the rest of the path in silence. Katherine was blushing so hard that it was a miracle Shrub hadn’t pointed it out.
At the end of the path, Katherine turned to walk back to her house, but Shrub ruined her plan to stay calm. They pressed a kiss to Katherine’s cheek, without saying anything, she turned away and started to walk home.
Katherine held a hand against her cheek, then ran back to Shrub. She grabbed their hand and completely lost her confidence. Shrub's disappointed look when she dropped her hand gave her enough idiocy to return the kiss.
Shrub didn't miss a beat, Katherine's logical brain didn't even get a second to think before Shrub's lips were on her's. As soon as it started, it ended and Shrub was gone. Katherine stared after the spot she’d disappeared from. She must be dreaming then, she decided, resigning herself to going home.