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Emu had never been good with fireworks. She was kind of afraid of all loud and sudden noises, as difficult to believe as that may be. Even with her high energy levels and Wondahois, she still had some fears. Mostly, they were things like popping balloons, yelling, and, well, fireworks. Unfortunately for her, today was Phoenix Wonderland’s 50th anniversary, which meant there would be a ton-ton-ton of fireworks. The rest of the troupe had planned to find somewhere to sit and watch them after their last show of the day, but Emu quickly made up an excuse to escape once the show ended.
Emu didn’t exactly want to leave the park, since she did have plans with the troupe after the fireworks, but she wanted to find a place that was quiet, and very safe from loud and sudden noises. She managed to find a bathroom in a remote corner of the park, far off from the main event. However, Emu didn’t expect someone to follow her.
“Emu? Are you in here?” Nene called into the bathroom.
“Eep! I’m uh- Occupied!!” said a panicked Emu.
“Nice try, but I can see you under the sinks. What are you doing?” Nene came in and sat down under the sinks next to her.
“Eeh.. well, It’s a little embarrassing to admit, but I’m scared of fireworks!” flushed Emu.
Nene cocked her head, “Why?”
“I don’t know! They just go boom-wa-pa-pow and KA-POW-OW-OW and it scares me!!!”
Nene giggled, then nodded and said, “That sounds pretty scary, do you want me to sit with you here until the show ends?”
“Nooo! What about Tsukasa and Rui!!” Emu protested.
“Trust me, I think they’ll be fine,” said Nene, rolling her eyes. “They’re probably too caught up in each other’s eyes to notice we’re gone.”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
“Nevermind.”
The silence was too silent. Emu could still hear the boom-wa-pa-pow-ow of the fireworks, and she started shaking. Nene, not knowing what to do, decided talking to fill the silence would be better than leaving Emu scared. The thing was, she didn’t exactly know how to do that.
“... so, what scares you about fireworks?” she said, and she hoped was a good conversation starter.
“Mmmm... mostly the suddenness!! It takes me by surprise... I don’t like when balloons pop or prop guns go off either... I don’t know why that scares me, though.”
“I get that. I was scared of clowns for the longest time.”
“Waah, really? But you work at a theme park!”
“I know, which is why it was pretty urgent for me to get over that fear once I started working here,” Nene giggled.
“I didn’t know that about Nene-chan!” Emu giggled back. “What else is she hiding from me?” She poked Nene’s cheek suspiciously.
“Hmm, I’ll tell you something else, but you have to promise to tell me a secret too.”
“Pinky-winky promise!” said Emu eagerly.
“I need glasses... I usually wear contacts, but if I run out on some days, I have to wear my glasses, but even then, I usually skip wearing them.” Nene looked bashful.
“Waaah, that’s super-duper cute! I would love to see Nene-chan in glasses, hehe~”
Nene blushed, “Well, you probably won’t. I don’t like wearing them, it’s kind of embarrassing... anyways, it’s your turn.”
Emu thought for a moment. She didn’t really have any secrets, she was kind of an open book. There may have been some things Nene didn’t know about her, though. Maybe she should start with those?
She lowered her knees from her chest and said, “I got so many scrapes and bruises as a kid, you can see ‘em all over my knees! I was kind of a crazy kid, hehe~”
Nene looked interested. “Show me, I wanna know some of those stories.”
“Umm, well... this one,” she pointed at a 1 inch long scar right below her knee, “is from when I was racing with another kid to climb up a tree, and the branches scraped my knee!! I think it was a cherry tree? Hmm, no, that doesn’t sound right, maybe it was a maple tree.” She pondered it for a moment.
Emu didn’t notice, but Nene was looking at her with such fondness in her eyes. There was a smile on her face at the thought of that memory, and if Emu had seen it, she would have called it “wondahoi”.
They didn’t notice, but soon enough an hour flew by as they were talking. The fireworks had stopped a long time ago. The two girls were so enamored with their conversation and with each other that they didn’t notice. When there was a short pause in conversation, Nene commented, “Oh, I think the fireworks stopped.”
Emu listened for a moment, “Oops! I think they did!! Should we go find Rui and Tsukasa?”
“Wait for a moment,” Nene blushed.
“Okay!” beamed Emu.
Nene leaned her head on Emu’s shoulder, while Emu flushed a deep tomato red. This was truly a wondahoi moment.
The two girls stayed like that until Tsukasa started calling Nene several dozen times in a row, until she finally couldn’t ignore it anymore and had to pick up the phone. Despite this, the rest of the night was just as pleasant as that short shared moment.