“Really? Again?”
Blade smirked at the black-haired firecaster, whose cheeks had begun to turn pink.
“I thought wewe liked our game last night, Fin,” she said, raising an eyebrow.
Fin blushed even harder. “Well, we don’t need to play it again!”
“Why not?” Alek asked. “It’ll be fun!”
Fin sighed. “All right.” She took the bottle off of the jikoni counter, and everyone arranged themselves in a circle, with the bottle in the middle. They all sat there, staring at it, until Aisling spoke.
“So...who wants to go first?”
Everyone looked at each other, willing the others to volunteer. A smirk spread on Fin’s face.
“How about Blade? Since she wanted to play soooo bad...”
Blade scoffed. “What? No I didn’t!”
Her voice was drowned kwa the others’ chanting. Spin it, spin it, spin it!
“Fiiiine,” Blade said, and spun the bottle. Everyone watched with bated breath as the bottle took its sweet time to lazily skid across the floor. Finally, after what felt like hours, it stopped. Blade looked over at where the opening was pointing at, and nearly fainted. But she knew better than to onyesha her surprise, so she painted a smirk on her face, and, crossing her arms, walked up and kissed Thirteen on the lips.
    Alek seemed just as shocked as she was from the pairing, but he didn’t bother to hide it. His cheeks had blushed dark red as Blade’s lips pressed against his, and his zumaridi, zamaradi eyes were filled with shock as he met the blonde teen’s red ones. This kiss was much shorter than Fin and Tyler’s from the awali night, and it hadn’t even been 30 sekunde when they broke apart. Alek was blushing even harder, and looked like he wanted to melt into the floor, but Blade was furious. She would get them back for this, she would. As she was just about to storm out the door and into her room, she noticed out of the corner of her eye Aisling whispering something to SilverWings, who nodded and passed it on to Fin and the others. Blade stood up and had gotten halfway across the room when Aisling stood in her way. The others were giggling, and Blade was about to knock her down, when Aisling spoke.
    “We’ve decided--” zaidi giggling. Blade narrowed her eyes. “That, after the success of last night’s game, that tonight, the game will be...extended. From now on, wewe and the person who wewe kiss must remain a couple for the entire night!”
    Blade whirled around. The others were grinning, laughing, Fin was smirking, SilverWings was rolling on the ground with laughter, and Alek had found the floor an exciting thing to stare at. She growled. “We will not be a couple!” she screamed, clenching her fists.
    “Come on!” SilverWings called to her. “It’ll be fun! And besides, we’ve already come up with a couple name! Thade! Like for Thirteen and Blade? Isn’t that cute?”
    “Adorable,” Blade alisema drily, and clenched her teeth, resisting the urge to ngumi, punch Aisling, who was still standing in front of her, blocking her only exit. Having no other option, she sighed, and turned back to the circle. She stomped over, kicked the bottle as hard as she could--it made a satisfying crunch as it hit Alek in the nose and shattered into bits--and kissed him on the lips, ignoring the blood dripping down from where the glass had hit him. Of all people, she was thinking, as she kissed him--for longer this time--I get him. My complete opposite. It was true. He was relaxed, sensitive, and easygoing, and what was she? Snarky, headstrong, temperous, and, well, a bitch. The others seemed to sense this, because when she finally pulled away, wiping his blood off of her face, they were grinning. “Opposites attract!” Aisling laughed, and Blade sincerely wished she hadn’t already broken the bottle kicking it at Thirteen.

Later, Blade was brooding in her bedroom, when a soft knock came on the door. Groaning, she got up to open it. There stood Thirteen, his golden-blonde hair combed out, his nose bandaged, and his emerald-green eyes apologetic. Blade resisted the urge to slam the door in his face, but she snarled, “What do wewe want?”
Alek raised an eyebrow. “I just thought, since we kind of have to be a couple for the night...I’d give wewe this.”
Blade gave a small smile as he held out a dark red rose. She wondered if he’d been waiting to do this, to give this to someone, anyone. He was one of the only single people on the team, after all. Slowly, she took it.
“I’m sorry, for, wewe know..” she gestured towards his bandaged nose. He smiled. “It’s alright. Maybe we should just go along with this. After all, it’s only for the night.”
Blade shrugged. “Maybe.” She sighed, and put the rose in a vase that was sitting on her desk, inayofuata to Terror’s dark flower. “Why don’t we make it public though. That way, wewe know, it’ll only be to make them happy. I mean, nothing against you, but...”
Alek nodded, not at all hurt. “I know. wewe have Terror. And that’s fine. So let’s go.”
The two left the room and headed back towards where the others were gathered. Blade’s mind couldn’t help anticipating the kiss they would share, even if it was only to get the others off their case. She looked at him as they walked. He was all right, she supposed. Well, he’d have to do.
    They reached the living room, where the rest of the team was still sitting in a circle, a fresh bottle between them, and Alek reached out his hand, groping for hers. She took it, and the team looked up to face them. She sighed, and they kissed. This time, she actually felt it. This was the longest of the three they’d had, and when they broke off, the others were clapping. Blade felt her cheeks grow slightly warm, and the mduara, duara reopened to make space for the temporary couple to sit down. Fin smiled. “So...who’s going to spin the bottle next?”