Ja'far

Sinbad laughs, surrounded by his harem of women. He drinks yet another glass of wine. "Ja'far!" he calls, shoving a bottle into my face. "Come on, have some fun! I've even called these women here for you," he said, gesturing to the two women clinging to me. I accept the bottle and pass it over to Masrur, who just passes it to Yamuraiha, who is too drunk and to busy fighting with Sharrkan to even notice the extra bottle.

"Ja'far, you're so cute!" gushed the girl on my right, the one with the giggly chipmunk voice. "Come on, you heard Sinbad-sama. Have some fun with us," said the girl on my left, pressing closer to me.

"Hey, isn't that (y/n)? Looks like she remembered her favour!" said Sinbad, pointing to a figure carrying a box and following a man. Even from this distance, I can tell that Sinbad is right.

Zaina

"Aww, he ran off," whines Amira in her high-pitched voice. I cross my arms. That Ja'far man is pretty cute. It's a pity that he decided to run off. But unlike Amira, I don't give up that easily. "He's chasing after another woman, right?" I say, putting a hand to my chin. Amira looks at me questioningly. I toss my long curls over my shoulder and stride confidently into the crowd.

Ja'far

Suddenly, a pink and blue cloud, along with the sound of children laughing, erupts somewhere in the crowd. More colourful clouds erupt in the crowd. Purple, red, orange, green and yellow clouds of powder fly through the crowd. "It's a powder fight, everyone!" a man shouts, throwing green powder into the air. I turn towards the platform where Sinbad and the others are. They're throwing powder too?!

"Fight me, you jerk!" yells Yamuraiha drunkenly, throwing orange powder at Sharrkan. "Challenge gladly accepted!" he shouted back, throwing a handful of pink powder at her face. Sinbad laughs as he throws yellow powder at Pisti, who is using Hinahoho as a human shield (cheating). Even Drakon and his wife are covered in colourful powder.

I walk on through the crowd, which is even harder now that I'm being pelted by coloured powder.

I catch sight of (h/c) hair. "(Y/n)!" I call, squeezing out of the crowd, tripping and falling on my face. I look up to see (y/n) staring down at me with her (e/c) eyes. Bright smudges of colour stand out against her face, slightly silhouetted against the light.

She helps me up. "Hey, where did you get that?" I ask, pointing to her clothes. It was a mix of Sindrian and Kou-style clothing. "Sinbad got them for me," she answered. "I was helping that man there work on his fireworks. He is also the one who brought the coloured powder," she continued, pointing to a foreign man with dark skin.

"Hey! It's time to start!" the man called, waving to (y/n).

Zaina

I finally make it out of the crowd mostly untouched by the colourful powder. Who the hell decided to start that powder fight? Anyway, I see Ja'far standing not so far away from me. He's with a girl. Oh well, I don't care. I'm sure I can charm him. I am just about to call out to him when I hear a loud boom.

Ja'far

I stare in amazement at the colours bursting through the sky.

"Great job, (y/n)!" the dark-skinned man shouts over the noise. I turn my head to (y/n). "Yeah, great jo-" the sentence catches in my throat. Her eyes gaze up at the colourful sky, her face smudged with black soot and colourful powder.

White, red, yellow, green, and purple sparks illuminate the dark night sky. A bright smile lights up (y/n)'s face.

Fiery sparks dance with the silver stars in the sky. Their colourful reflections flicker in her eyes like rainbow versions of the fireflies we saw that night.

The view is so blinding that I cannot tear my eyes away.

Zaina

Geez, the noise scared me but I can't help but stare at the fireworks along with the now silent crowd. I shake my head. Anyway, back to Ja'far. I take one step towards him then stop.

Shoving my way through the awed crowd, I make my way back to the rest of the girls.

"Why back so soon?" asks Amira. I sit down on the steps, the image of Ja'far and that other girl still burning in my mind. "I've never seen anyone look at someone that way," I say.

Something bursts against the side of my face. Amira smiles goofily at me, the blue stains on her hands matching the one on my face. I get a handful of purple powder. She may be annoying sometimes, but I can always count on my sister to cheer me up.

Ja'far

"What is it?" (y/n) says. "N-nothing," I hurriedly say. I can't believe she caught me staring. She smiles at me and I can feel my face catching on fire.

"Hey, (y/n)! There you are!" calls Yamuraiha, dragging Sharrkan with her through the crowd. Before (y/n) can respond, the still drunk magician hugs her, squeezing her like a teddy bear.

"Awesome job with the fireworks," compliments Sharrkan. "I agree," says Masrur, Irie the bird perched on his shoulder.

(Y/n) awkwardly moves Yamuraiha's arms off of her.

"Thank you. I was just trying to help someone," she says, gesturing to the foreign man who had brought the coloured powder. "You should hire him for the next festival," she adds.

Sinbad nods, a female dancer still clinging to his arm.

We return back to the palace, our (drunken) laughter echoing through the streets, the burnt smell of fireworks still faintly woven through the night air.