Time Witch
by pure luck, you end up working on the final project with the only other girl in your comp sci class
she's cute and, unless you're gravely mistaken, very gay
the first sign that something isn't quite right is her discord DMs in the middle of the night
11:17pm - i got the netcode mostly working
02:38am - just pulled your code from git
02:39am - gonna try and start on the network code
in class the next morning, you ask her about it
"great, now I need to fix that again" she sighs
you assume this is just her weird linux setup
the next thing you notice is her extremely detailed planner book
something is *off* about it and it hurts your head to look at it
she sees you looking at it and gives you a wink
"want a spot on it~?" she asks
you blush
"y-yes"
"see you at the ice rink. tomorrow at 7."
not only is she gay, you're guessing she tops
as she takes a Pilot G2 and writes your date down, you see other blocks of time shift around
you're probably just still tired and need to drink more coffee
your yearning propels you through the next day and a half, which fly by
at the ice rink, you sit down next to her and start to put on your skates
everything seems to go blank and the next thing you remember is stepping out onto the ice, holding her hand to not fall over
when you hold her hand, you feel something rhythmic and mechanical pulsing
she notices your confusion and smiles
"that's just my watch"
she pushes up the sleeve of her hoodie to show you a chunky Poljot watch with cyrillic lettering and two subdials on its face
it's held on her wrist with a cloth strap in the familiar colors of the trans pride flag
"it looks like something out of the soviet space program"
"you're not too far off; it was designed for fighter pilots and it helps keep me on time"
as you skate out onto the ice together, the ticking of her watch seems to slow down, but you're too busy being gay to notice
you go back to her place and wrap yourself around her
the ticking of her watch, which remains on her wrist despite everything, has slowed to a crawl
you finally notice that something's a bit off, but you don't want to ruin the moment
you're awakened early the next morning by her getting out of bed
you yawn and she giggles a bit
"babe, let's go somewhere"
you yawn again, trying to ask "where?"
"it's a surprise~"
as you pull on clothes, she puts her planner in a pocket it should be too big to fit in
stepping out the door into the pre-dawn darkness, she takes the broom leaning against the wall
she steps over it and, without even thinking, you do too and put your arms around her waist
the two of you kick off and fly north
you know you must be dreaming, but flying is a wonderful feeling that you want to believe in
she brings you down gently on the rocky shore of the lake
"are you a witch? is this really happening?" you ask, leaning in and kissing her before she can answer
"you're not dreaming, babe. I'm a witch"
she sits down on the shale pebbles of the beach and takes her planner from her pocket
you take a seat next to her
she writes something you can't read and you watch it change from red to green
"normally it's just to make my absurd schedule work, but..." she says, knowing the question you're going to ask as she gently taps her planner over and over
"I just want to keep watching the sunrise with you" you say, the echoes of the waves at the beach rippling forward and backwards as your head falls leaning onto her shoulder
FIN.