A Bubbling Romance

“Uh. Jasmine Milk Tea?” a voice calls out to the cozy environment of Philosotea from a barista boy with a yellow name-tag. The low orange light of early dusk seeps in through the cracks of the city’s skyline, still bright enough to shine through the little specks of dust in the still air. Everything smells of old wood and fresh tea.

Lavish perks up from their overstuffed chair at the call, pulling their vision away from the pale blue light of their cell. Uncrossing their legs and removing one of their headphones, they make their way over to the bar to collect their boba.

As Lavish reaches for the drink, Luna steps forward from where she was leaning against the counter to collect HER drink. Their fingers brush, but Luna keeps going for the drink, saying, “Sorry, but I was in line before you, so I think this is mine.”

Lavish, not one to be challenged, holds strong over the drink. They open their mouth for a bitchy quip, but they catch a look at the peasant attempting to abscond with their drink and they hesitate. *‘Oh, this one looks like fun,’* they muse to themself as a smirk curls over their face. “Perhaps we settle it over a wager?” they ask, a brow raising in curiosity.

Luna smirks. “Ooooh, *spicy*. What did you have in mind? Though maybe we should come up with a different prize since your drink’s ready too—excellent choice by the way.”

A pompous little giggle comes from Lavish at this stranger’s doubling-down. “Oh, you’re a charmer. Tell you what,” Lavish takes their hand off the drink in their shared grip and moves it to hold up the other, identical cup, “the first one to get some lucky stranger on a date gets both. Deal?”

“Deal!” Luna says, their smirk growing wider. “I like the way you think, lovely. How would you feel about going down to Camelot Park and sharing some more bright ideas over boba?” They’re leaning on the counter where the workers place the boba now, elbow down and their head leaning on their open palm. They take a sip of boba and lick their lips.

Lavish covers their mouth as their giggle comes back in full force. “I *knew* you would be fun.” They lean back against the same counter, pausing a moment as if considering the offer. Their gaze shifts over Luna, sizing him up before answering, “That would be lovely, darling.” They mute their own widening smile with a pointed sip of the boba in their hands.

“Awesome!” says Luna, their smile growing more genuine. They offer Lavish an arm, bent at the elbow, old timey date style. “Care for an escort?”

Lavish rolls their eyes at the cheese of the gesture but nonetheless seems more than happy to hook their arm in with Luna’s. “By your lead,” they say before whispering, “but I think this means we both win, hun.” Another sip.

“Oh you’re so right.” Luna takes the straw out of their drink, pokes it into Lavish’s and takes a sip. “Hmm. Yours is way better. Do you think it’s ‘cause you’re a famous person and they want you to tag them on Binstagram?”

“Oh?” Lavish glances back at the barista who served their drinks. The boy seems to be quietly looking on as the two walk toward the exit, but trying not to make eye contact. They wait a moment for him to glance up again before giving a wink, then turning back to their impromptu date. “Well, that’s not quite fair, is it now?” Lavish delicately removes their straw and swaps it over to Luna’s cup as he did, taking a long sip as the two step out of the tea shop.

“Actually,” Lavish says, pulling their head away from the straw, “speaking of, I was going to use this drink as a selfie prop. Would you like a little touch of fame, darling?” They give a confident grin.

“Not particularly,” says Luna, “I work best in—and with—shadows.” She waves a hand and manifests a little round bluebird on her finger that flies over to land on Lavish’s shoulder. “But...” she pauses, stares really *really* intently at Lavish’s face, and shifts into a carbon copy, bird and all. “I’m happy to cause some trouble.” She pauses again, expectant.

After watching with increasing curiosity, Lavish pauses to turn their gaze to the illusionary bird perched upon their shoulder. They give a little blow to the air before it, and a small, heart-shaped cloud of glitter spills out over the bird’s head like a puff of smoke. “You know, normally I’m more frustrated when someone this handsome steals my look, but I must applaud,” they say, raising a brow at Luna and giving a mock applause. “I love the idea, but for the record, you’re not the only one that knows that trick.” Lavish flicks their arm to the side with a sharp snap of their fingers, and suddenly a freshly made-over Luna is looking back at the new Lavish.

Lavish suddenly sees their mouth pulled into a boyish grin. “You too?! Oh my gods I’ve never met anyone else who can do this like me. Well, I mean, I’ve met other shapeshifters before, I fought Mirror, and Dawn might know that Hayeli person from.” She pauses, tilts her head to the left a bit. “Shapatorya? Uh. Armenian stuff I think, the memory’s in gibberish. I swear to the gods this girl needs to learn to think in English. Uh. Anyway. I’ve never seen someone do it with actual panache though.”

“Oh hun, I’m nothing if not absolutely flamboyant,” Lavish says as they spin on their heel, wearing their own look again after they stop. A new cloud of glitter sheds from them as they re-adopt their form. “You know, I heard there was a new shapeshifter on the hero scene, but I didn’t think it was Luna. Thought it must’ve been that Screw boy or something. You’re certainly more fashionable than I expected.”

Luna brushes glitter off her shoulder. “Screw? Do you mean Bolt? No he talks to computers with his brain I think. Does a lot of stuff with robots. And my shape shifting is kinda funky, since it’s tied to the shadow stuff. But thank you, I hear that means a lot coming from you.”

Another giggle. “Consider yourself flattered, love. Now,” Lavish trails off, reaching into their backpack to pull out a telescoping selfie-stick. They start posing themself in the light of the setting sun, Philosotea set in the background, their own body leaning back against their double far enough that they need to be held upright or fall. They hold up their boba to their mouth in such a way that it catches the light perfectly. “Pout for the camera!”

Luna angles herself to match and does her best to mirror Lavish’s pout.

A satisfying digital mimicry of a camera shutter clicks, and Lavish pulls their phone back in. Lavish looks up at Luna from their low angle with a cheeky grin. “Gods, I’m pretty.”

“You’re definitely lovely, Lovely.” Luna shifts back. “Hope I’m good enough to match,” they say with a wink. They drain the rest of their boba to hide the genuine nerves about whether Lavish thinks their actual body is hot.

Lavish lingers there in that position for just another moment. “Hmm, you certainly are giving me a run for my money, dear,” they say, pulling away as soon as they notice their teeth tugging on their lip. Lavish places themself by Luna’s side again and mirrors his earlier exaggerated gesture of offering their arm. “We should get going or we’ll miss the last bit of sunset at the park.”

Luna takes the offered arm. “Right, let’s go! I know where we can get the best view.”

Street lights illuminate the way to the park as night slowly approaches. The dying rays of sunlight stretch in multicolored strokes over the sky. The smell of the air quickly freshens as the teens jog into the park in a leisurely race to their chosen spot.

“I’m curious,” Lavish says, pausing to take their last sip of tea, “Do you go out with cute strangers very often or am I the exception?”

“You’re the first, actually,” Luna says, a bit too casually perhaps. They’re sitting down on a nearby bench, swinging their legs back and forth. “I haven’t exactly been around for a while. Honestly I wanted to see what the hype was about more than anything else. I didn’t expect you to actually be fun.”

Lavish has themself stretched out over the bench, resting their head on Luna’s lap, and leaving one leg dangling and swinging over the side. “Oh, that’s so adorable! Your first date and you’re already with the hottest, most interesting person in the city,” they giggle as they reach out to boop Luna’s nose. “You’ve been fun too, dear. I more than welcome such an attractive distraction.”

Luna giggles and brushes a stray bit of Lavish’s hair behind their ear. “No, you.”

For the first time in the night, Lavish seems to lose their composure for a moment. They find themselves looking dreamily up at Luna as if they’ve forgotten how to experience time. When they notice it, their cheeks begin to redden before they try to regroup their confidence. “I like looking up at you,” they half-blurt out.

“Well that’s good ‘cause I like looking at you too,” says Luna. “Told you I knew a spot with the best view.” They boop Lavish back on the nose.

Caught off-guard, Lavish gets flustered enough that they snort with laughter. Immediately after the sound is made, Luna hears a mousy squeak as they cover their mouth. They try to ignore the heat gathering in their cheeks.

Luna looks absolutely *besotted*. “OK, can I do something real quick?”

Lavish nods, somewhat sheepishly despite themself.

Luna leans down and smooches them on the nose, then on the cheek, and finally lands on their lips.

Lavish gently cups Luna’s face in their hand as they kiss, letting their eyes flutter closed in the warm moment. They pull away an inch, opening their eyes to gaze into Luna’s. “Better than I expected for a first-timer,” they whisper, giving a smug smile.

Luna blushes. “Oh. Uh, good! I’m glad. Not sure why that happened, but, uh. Glad it worked!” They lean back up against the back of the bench and look out at the now darkened sky. “Is it bad that I don’t want to leave?”

As an act of reassurance, Lavish takes Luna’s hand in theirs and gently squeezes. While Luna muses, they bring it up to their mouth for a peck. “Not at all, dear. I don’t either.”

“I’m gonna have to soon,” Luna sighs. “Dawn has a killer curfew, and it’s only gotten tighter since we showed up.” They pause for a moment, then ask haltingly. “Can we. Can we maybe do this again sometime? Maybe more formally? And maybe at a place that does laser tag?”

Lavish looks quizzically at the first statement, almost wondering aloud why Luna would have anything to do with Dawn’s curfew before they suddenly realize that the three are in fact not triplets as they assumed. They quickly brush this out of their mind to answer Luna’s question. They pull themself up by the back of the bench to kiss Luna on the cheek. “Absolutely. I look forward to it.”

Luna smiles, smooches them on the forehead, and says, “Thank you. OK. See you later!” They gently scootch Lavish over, and run off. Lavish can see them do a fistpump in the sky when they think they’re far enough away to not be seen.

Lavish’s eyes roll through their delighted smile as they watch Luna dash off into the night in the dorkiest way possible. After she’s well beyond sight, Lavish collapses back onto the bench and exhales a warm, dreamy sigh.