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It was the week before valentine's day and Liko's doubts were getting bigger with each passing day. She had approached Dot the other day and mentioned the upcoming event as casually as possible, at which, according to her own judgement, she was horrendously bad. Dot's reaction had been... off, to say it nicely. She had instantly broken and avoided any eye contact with Liko and only mumbled something Liko just couldn't seem to make out. It was as if she had immediately understood what Liko was hinting at by asker her, and to Liko, excitement looked very different.
Was it because Dot would rather spend the day on her own like any other? Or even worse, was it because she didn't want to spend it with Liko specifically? And either way, did Liko really have any right to bother Dot with her selfish requests? The questions were piling up in her head and she had no answers for any of them. Valentine's day was getting closer and closer and with every day Liko wasted worrying about Dot's answer she became more and more anxious.
One evening, Liko was in her room, laying on her bed with her head stuck as deep in her pillow as she could get it. She was once again trying and failing to calm down and get herself to think of anything else other than Dot. It was only when Orla knocked on her door asking if she could talk to her that she finally changed into a sitting position on her bed before telling her to come in. It was getting late and Orla had probably worked all day on something Liko would never understand, so she was a little surprised to see her now. Not that she minded of course. She liked talking to her, and whatever it was, it might actually be able to distract her for a while.
"Come in!" she said, putting on her usual smile as best as she could, which instantly faltered a little when she got a look at Orla.
"A-Are you okay?" she asked, a little concerned. "You look like you've been overworking yourself again..."
Orla sheepishly rubbed one hand behind her head in response, laughing weakly.
"Oh, yeah. I uhh, might have forgotten the time just a little bit. I promise I'll try to be better, so don't worry too much about me." she said the exact same unconvincing way she probably said it dozens of times before. "But speaking about it, I'm actually here to ask you how you are doing. Has there been anything concerning you lately?"
Liko quietly groaned and let her head slump down on her knees a little.
"How did you even figure that out?" she asked weakly.
"May I?" Orla asked, pointing at Liko's bed and sitting down on the edge of it when Liko simply nodded in response. "I didn't. But I met Dot earlier and she was a little concerned about you." Orla confessed. "And she's usually pretty good at figuring out when you're struggling with something..." she added with a hint of smugness in her voice, but when Liko's face grew in both redness and sadness, she quickly got serious again. Ultimately she wanted to help Liko and not leave the impression that she was making fun of her. "Could it be that your current situation has something to do with Dot?" she asked carefully.
"Mhm..."
After a while of internally debating with herself, Liko slowly but surely opened up to Orla about her worries. She told her how much she wanted to ask Dot out on a date for valentine's day and maybe even confess her love for her. She told her about Dot's reaction from a few days ago and how concerned she was about making things awkward between them or even worse, ruining their friendship.
"I see..." Orla mumbled, doing her best to fight back a smile at Liko's confession. To her, neither Liko nor Dot were fooling anyone about how they felt for each other and Orla was happy that Liko finally figured it out for herself, but she also knew that actually being in her position was a whole other story.
"I probably shouldn't be telling you this without her permission, but Mollie actually asked me out on a valentine's day date yesterday." Orla said with a fond smile spreading over her tired face. "I never really cared much about valentine's day myself, but when she asked me it made me incredibly happy. What I'm trying to say is, it's obvious to every one of us that the bond you share with Dot is something special. I'm sure she would love to spend even more time with you, whether it's as a friend or something more, and even if she doesn't feel the same way you do, I know she would never think poorly of you because of your feelings for her."
Liko was now looking up at her with wide eyes and a hint of a smile tugging at her lips. The things Orla had told her encouraged her more than she could put into words and the way Orla smiled when she talked about Mollie really made Liko wish that she could make Dot smile the same way.
The next day, Liko was determined to finally ask Dot out on a date for valentine's day. It wasn't like she had much more time left anyways, but after her talk with Orla, she managed to build up some courage. When she knocked on her door, she could hear Dot mumbling something inaudible before scrambling up from her chair to walk to the door. When she opened it, Liko saw how Dot's mood liftet immediately upon seeing her. The shy smile spreading across her face did not help Liko concentrate on the task ahead. In fact, if this was about her, she would probably be able to look at Dot's smile for a couple hours and just forget everything else in the world.
"H-Hey Liko... uhm, did you need anything from me?" Dot asked, caught a little off guard by how blatantly Liko was staring at her.
"O-Oh I... uh... sorry I just... wanted to ask you something?" Liko stammered, her face growing red like a boiled scizor.
"W-What is it?"
"W-Would you... like to go out? With me? O-On valentine's day?"
Liko couldn't face her directly anymore, instead settling on whatever interesting spot she could find on the ground, causing her to miss how the color of Dot's face began to match her own.
"Wha-... l-like a date??" she asked in embarrassment and disbelief, causing Liko to falter a litte.
"Y-Yeah! Would that be an issue? I-I mean it's totally fine if you don't want that... I probably should have asked you much earlier instead of waiting so long... a-actually I'm sorry for asking, I didn't intend for this to be so awkward and we could just-"
The spiral in Liko's mind was abruptly stopped by Dot's hand grabbing onto her forearm.
"Liko."
When Dot called her back to reality, Liko finally managed to look her in the eyes again.
"I... I would love to go..."
"..."
Liko just stared at her dumbfounded. She couldn't believe it. She could not believe her luck. She was going to go out with Dot. With the girl she liked. On a date. She would probably spend hours squealing in happiness, kicking her feet and giggling and smiling like an idiot just thinking about it. For now though, due to her inability to say anything else to Dot, she instead vowed to herself to make the upcoming valentine's day the best day ever for the girl she admired so much.