Ten
Diego
I shook my head at myself. Shade had seen me in way worse conditions. Sure, I'd been a kid back then, but still. He wasn't going to lose interest because of some stupid cat fur .
My phone rang, pulling me out of my worried thoughts, and I answered it before the automated voice could tell me who it was, my voice a touch breathless as I said, "Hello?"
"Hey, Diego. You look very dashing today," Shade said, making me duck my head, which I realized possibly showed him more of my embarrassment since he was most likely in my shadow.
"Ah, thank you. I'd return the compliment, but..." I trailed off with a grin, and he chuckled. "I am happy you're here."
"That's even better. Now come on. Time for our date. Does Pixie have everything she will need? We'll be out all day."
I smiled, then gave Pixie a few more scratches before carefully sliding her off my lap and onto the couch. She must've been really sleepy, because she barely protested. Leaning down, I kissed the top of her head, then stood.
"She does. Her feeder is set on a timer, and I just refreshed her water bowl."
"Okay, then. Let's go."
"Give me a second. I'll switch to Bluetooth so I don't have to hold my phone to my ear all day," I said, then pulled the case out of my pocket.
Quickly connecting the buds to my phone, I stuck them into my ears.
While I used them daily to listen to my audiobooks, I rarely used them outside the house because I needed to be aware of my surroundings.
But with Shade, I could trust him to guide me, and wouldn't need to be as careful.
"Done."
"Can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear. Okay, where are we going?"
"That's a surprise."
"Okay, how are we getting there?"
"Do you trust me? "
"Unfortunately," I said as I realized what he was planning.
Shade snorted. "Grab your cane."
I did, and a moment later, I felt myself fall before slim, strong arms wrapped around my waist, holding me close.
"Hi," Shade said directly into my ear, and I turned to him, a grin on my face.
"Am I inside a shadow?"
"Your couch's, yeah. I thought we could get there via a shadow. The other option would've been a cab, but Liam said it would take forty minutes. Forty minutes!"
"That's a lot of time," I murmured, wondering where exactly he was planning to take me.
"Right? Hold on," he murmured, and I wrapped my arms around his middle, tucking my face against his neck as I felt the familiar tendrils of shadow envelop me.
"Okay, we are here. Step forward," Shade encouraged, and I let go of him and did just that.
Between one step and the next, I went from the cool darkness of the shadows to the warmth of sunlight, the sounds of a lot of people around me, unfamiliar sounds that I couldn't quite place, the scent of warm, spicy food, coffee, chocolate.
..it was overwhelming, and I found myself trying to step right back into the shadows, except I just stepped into a shaded area of some sort with all the sounds still there.
"Are you okay?" Shade asked in my ear, and I realized he must be back in my shadow.
Focusing on his voice helped drown out the noise around us, and I nodded slowly. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just got a little stunned by the clamor."
Shade hissed. "I didn't think of that. Would you rather we go somewhere else? "
"Where exactly are we?" I asked, wanting to know before I decided anything.
"An amusement park," Shade said after a moment, and I sucked in a breath.
"Really?" I demanded, my nerves instantly replaced by excitement.
I'd always wanted to go to one, ever since my class went on a field trip when I was ten and I couldn't attend because my mom couldn't afford the extra fee.
Afterward, when things got better financially, my mom wouldn't let me go because of my blindness, because she was afraid the teachers wouldn't be careful and I'd get lost.
By the time I became an adult, I'd stopped thinking about it, and I never even tried to go on my own, or with a friend. Now that I thought about it, Liam would've been excited to come with me if I'd asked.
"Yes," Shade answered, and I shook my head in wonder.
"I've always wanted to go to one."
"I know," Shade said, and that gave me a pause. How did he... oh, right.
The memory came back to me, then, of me lying in a dark room, the covers tucked under my chin as I gazed into the darkness.
As soon as Mom had tucked me in and left, I'd gotten up, closed the blinds, and turned off my night light so Shade could come out and talk to me.
Some nights, he stayed under the bed. Others he sat beside the bed, though it was always too dark for me to see what he looked like.
Mom had just told me I couldn't go to the amusement park, and Shade and I had spent hours planning a trip. What we'd do, everything we'd eat, how much fun we'd have. I'd almost felt like we were already there.
Shade had promised we'd go sometime, that he would find a way .
More than fifteen years later, he finally had.
Shade
"Would you like to go in?" I asked when Diego seemed to be lost in thought. A few people had walked by giving him strange looks, and since I couldn't smack them for it, I had to get Diego moving before I did something petty like making them trip over their own shadows.
"Yes!" Diego exclaimed after a moment, making a woman jump as she walked past.
"This way," I said, as my shadows tugged his feet in the right direction.
I'd thought about doing it myself, but I hadn't wanted to get distracted talking to him and accidentally lead him wrong, so I was letting the shadows that'd been doing it so far handle it.
They were like a severed limb that still had power—my powers—and while I couldn't control them, it was clear all they wanted to do was keep Diego safe, and I was fully on board with that.
We made our way inside after Diego scanned his ticket—which Liam had emailed to him after purchasing it for me—and his head turned from side to side as he took everything in.
"What do you see?" I asked curiously. He'd told me he had some sight when he was in brightly lit places, and I didn't think I'd ever been in a place brighter than this. If I wasn't safely hidden away in his shadow, I might've simply combusted or turned to ash.
"Mostly just a lot of dark blobs against the light," he said with a snort. "That has to be a roller coaster, right?" I followed his pointed finger to a roller coaster track way in the distance, and hummed. "Can we go there? "
"You want to start with the scariest ride?" I asked, and he chuckled.
"You think it's scary?"
"Do you have any idea how high that is? What if you fell?"
"The seats have belts and stuff, Shade. I won't fall," Diego said with a chuckle as he started walking, and I huffed. "And even if I do, I know you'll find some way to catch me before I go splat."
Well, he wasn't wrong about that.
"But let's start with some tamer stuff first," he decided, much to my relief.
We spent the next few hours trying out a variety of rides, from things that turned round and round until Diego was dizzy and I'd barely just managed to hold onto his shadow—it was a mix of terrifying and exhilarating I'd never experienced before, and it explained to me why humans liked rides like the roller coaster—to tamer stuff like a live show where the natural elements—air, water, fire, earth—came to life, so to speak.
Diego especially liked that one, even though it left his hair looking like a bird's nest.
"Ah, you may want to run your fingers through your hair a bit," I said when he stepped out. While I thought he looked adorable, I had a feeling he'd be mad if I didn't tell him.
"What?" he asked, then did as I'd asked, his eyes going wide. "Oh shit." He messed around with his hair for a while, until it looked less wind-blown and more gently mussed. "How is it now?"
"It looks great."
"Thanks for telling me. It's embarrassing when you come home and find something off with your looks and realize you walked around like that all day and no one told you," he said, and I got the feeling he was speaking from experience.
Proving me right, he went on. "One time, I went to school wearing two different-colored shoes, and no one told me, not even my kids.
They're usually the first ones to point that crap out, but for some reason, they didn't. It wasn't until I went to Liam's shop and he informed me that I found out. "
Diego gave a full-body shudder, and I reached up to pat his ankle, wishing I could give him a hug instead. Not knowing what I could say to make him feel better, I offered, "Would you like to eat something next?"
His stomach growled in answer, and I chuckled.
"Come on. I see some kind of food stand about twenty feet ahead."
Diego started walking, then hummed. "Overpriced hot dog, yes please."
So he bought two of them, then snuck one to me when I assured him no one was looking. He sat on a bench as we snacked, then made me tell him about all the rides I could see from here so he could pick what we would do next.
We tried a ride where we had to shoot the monsters, and since it was mostly dark in the tunnel, I helped Diego out, earning him the highest points of all.
When the man at the end—who offered pictures to those who wanted to buy one—saw Diego, then saw his cane, his eyes widened, and he scribbled something on a piece of paper before handing it to Diego.
"That was a good game! Here. If you take this to the photo booth—that's to the left of here, three rides down, near the coffee shop—they'll give you a free photo of your ride."
Diego took the receipt, his brows furrowing. "Not sure what I'll do with a photo, but thanks!"
The man's eyes widened, and he started sputtering as Diego gave him a cheery wave and walked out .
I waited until we were outside before I started laughing. "You did that on purpose! The poor man looked ready to fall apart!"
Diego grinned down at me, and I shook my head. I remembered this side of him from before. I didn't think it had survived everything he'd been through, and I was glad to be proven wrong.
"Come on—let's go get our photo. I can't see it, but you can. Do you think it caught you?" he asked as we started heading toward the booth, and I shrugged.
"Even if it did, they'll probably call it a 'trick of the light' or something like that."
Diego snorted. "Yeah, who would believe I had my own personal shadow boyfriend?"
I chuckled, and once Diego had collected his photo—which he passed to me, and it did indeed capture me, though merely as a blurry, vaguely human shadow—he decided it was time for his Mt. Everest, aka the biggest roller coaster ride in the park.