Chapter Text
Sol walked into the bar to see Nomi-Nomi carefully balancing on a chair, pressing something against the wall. “What are you doing?” they asked with a raised eyebrow.
Nomi startled at their voice and nearly fell off the chair they were on. Sol chuckled and tried to hide it with their hand, “Shoot, sorry . . . are you okay?”
Nomi huffed at Sol’s laugh and carefully climbed down off their high perch. “Yes, yes, I’m fine,” they glared, although it was clear that they weren’t actually mad. “What’re you doing here?”
Sol shrugged, “Just curious. Wanted to see what you and Rex were up to.”
Nomi seemed to brighten at that, “Well, I don’t know about Rex, but I’m decorating! Marz told me about Valentine's Day, and I thought it would be fun to celebrate by putting up cute decorations!”
Sol smiled at their excitement. They remembered when Marz first told them about Valentine’s Day, too. “Do you need any help?” they offered, since they had nothing better to do, and Nomi looked like they could use some assistance.
Nomi’s whole face shone at Sol’s question, “Oh, you want to help? Of course, of course!” They lead Sol over to a box full of pink and red decorations, all covered in glitter. “Here, this is what I was thinking . . .” Nomi opened up a 3D model of the bar on their holopalm, showing Sol their elaborate plan.
They spent the day like that, hanging up paper chains and sticking hearts onto the walls. Nomi even pulled out a roll of LED strip lights and a package of fairy lights, claiming it would ‘bring out the love in the air.’ Sol laughed at that, but they helped Nomi put them up anyway.
It had grown dark by the time they finished. Nomi swiped sweat off their brow and rested their hands on their hips, looking proudly at their work. It was at that moment that Nomi noticed a heart decoration was slightly crooked, and dragged a chair over so that they could reach it.
Just as Nomi balanced on their tiptoes and reached up to correct the placement, Rex came in. The sudden opening of the door startled them so much that the chair tipped and they tumbled to the ground. Luckily, it wasn’t very far from the floor, and Nomi didn’t get hurt, except for maybe a few bruises and a sore back. Unluckily, they landed right into the container of excess decorations and materials they used to make it, including the glitter. As they fell into the bucket, a plume of pink and red glitter flew up around them, covering their whole body and the floor in sparkles.
Rex, still in the doorway, barked out a laugh at Nomi’s unfortunate situation. Sol chuckled too, but they at least had the decency to reach out to grab Nomi’s hand and pull them up out of the case of the streamers, banners, glitter, and confetti.
“Ugh! Now I’m going to have to clean this all up . . .”
Rex grabbed a room that was leaning against the doorframe. “Here you go!”
Nomi took the broom with an exhausted hand and began to half-heartedly sweep the glitter into a pile. Rex sighed and grabbed a spare broom to help them clean up the mess that was currently covering the wood-panelled floor.
Nomi sighed, “It’s gonna take so long to clean this up . . .”
“Not if we work together!” Sol chirped, grabbing their own broom and beginning to collect the glitter and confetti into one of the dust pans. “You know what they say, teamwork is the dream work!”
“Yeah! That’s the spirit, Sol!” Rex held up his hand for a high five and beamed at his friends.
“Okay, okay . . .” Nomi gave both of them a weak smile and began to hum a jaunty tune while they worked, swaying their hips to the beat. Sol grinned at them, glad that their joyful personality had returned.