Author's Note: Hi everyone, welcome to How Far We've Come, my pre-sequel to my Alisha X Rose Tales of Zestiria fic, Simply. While I was able to finish Simply as a one-shot, there were several scenes from that story I was forced to omit due to space constraints; some of those scenes were edited and refitted into my Mikleo X Edna fic, Because, but there were others I still couldn't fit or save for my main project, End of an Era. As such, I've decided to make this pre-sequel to implement such scenes and give a more proper ending to Alisha and Rose's story. Like its prequel, this is a side story to my main project, but at the same time, neither this story or End of an Er are reliant on one another to understand each story's events. However, I strongly recommend you read Simply before reading this story to fully understand the events that will play out later on.

So what makes this a pre-sequel exactly? While the story does take place after Simply, about half of the events are flashbacks, namely flashbacks of past relationships Rose and Alisha reflect on and how it made them into who they are now. I'm sure readers of End of an Era and even Simply might also be thinking all's well and ends well with Alisha and Rose in the end, but does it really? After all, we didn't see what happened after Alisha and Rose tied the knot; for all everyone else knew, it did end all happily ever after for these two, but what were Alisha and Rose actually thinking and how were they acting behind closed doors?

Before I get ahead of myself, unlike Simply, this will be a multi-chapter story, consisting of four chapters; the first two chapters will be told in Rose's POV and the last two in Alisha's POV. Unlike my main project, the future updates for this story will be more sporadic so as to not spoil some events in End of an Era (namely in terms of what Alisha and Rose might have done in the past to affect the present in End of an Era, especially in regard to these two's fate in the end).

Also, there is also a lemon for this chapter, but as usual, the edited version can be found on my Fanfiction account.

I guess that's all I have to say for now, so let's get to the story!

Chapter 1: Is It Our Time?

I feel your bare skin still lying on top of me after a few precious minutes pass, your breath tickling against my neck. I continue to hold you closely regardless, pulling you even closer as if we could become one. My fingers continue to run down your sandy blonde hair, twirling them within your natural curls. I want to keep you here, I want to keep you close, just like this, forever and ever.

"Alisha…," I whisper her name.

"Rose…," you purr my own.

A thought sparks in my head now, a thought I never really considered even though we've known each other for nineteen years. It's a thought I couldn't consider for the longest time, not while you were still legally married to someone else.

I look over to the desk and find the piece of paper that started this whole 'celebration'. It was your finalized divorced papers, annulling the union you had with Sergei for the last seventeen years. Even though your heart belonged to me, it always hurt knowing that by law you were bound to somebody else. You told me you never loved him, that you only admired him for the deeds that he had done as a soldier, for his role as a father to your two children; you said everything you were belonged only to me, it always belonged to me. In the eyes of Hyland and Rolance though, that wasn't the case until now; with your divorce now finalized, you were officially a free woman now, my free woman.

And now we come back to this thought that keeps nagging my head now. How long can you be free? Will it be only a matter of time before you go off somewhere else? I didn't want you to go anywhere, I only wanted you to be here, with me. I want…

"Is something the matter, Rose?"

There you go again, somehow reading my mind before I can even say anything. I have to admit that like that look in your eyes, that sparkle you always show me as if you're about to cry. Isylvia Amekia, 'Teary-eyed Alisha', I really did you give a name that suits you when we first made our pact all those years ago.

"It's nothing," I try to assure you. "But hey, can I ask you something?"

There I go again, blurbing out something before I can even think things through. I could always pull back and come up with something else to say, but this time, I can't bring myself to do it. This thought just now, sure it just crossed my mind after today's recent events, but hey, I've always been the type to live in the moment much to everyone else's frustration. Still, this is one of those things that just continues to nag me, that's never going to stop until I finally mention it.

"What is it?"

Man those teary eyes of yours always get to me. Now I know I really can't back down, not with the way you're staring at me.

Okay, calm down, just breathe. It's just one question, it's not gonna hurt to ask, I mean the worst thing that can happen is that you say 'no', right? Come on, lay it out, we've already gone through the drama of sixteen years up until just last year when you finally (and surprisingly) admitted you loved me in front of everyone at the Ladylake Market and the little make out session we had afterward.

"Rose?"

"…I know you and Sergei's divorce has just been finalized today, but there's something I wanna ask you."

"What is it?"

Well, no going back now…

"This might sound weird considering everything that just happened, maybe even out of place since we just, uh, 'made love' as you would put it, but…"

"This isn't like you to be beating up and over the bush, Rose," you interrupt me, using your weird interpretation of slang as you always do. "Is something the matter?"

Screw it, just get on with it already!

"You wanna be my wife?"

Your teary green eyes look at me without blinking now. Your face is completely blank as you stare at me, almost as if you just saw Edna hitting Mikleo over the head with her umbrella for the millionth time. You don't say a word as you continue to sit over me, your mouth completely still and your body not moving an inch. I figure you're getting weird on me again, just like the morning after our first night seventeen years ago.

"Is it too soon to ask, or are you enjoying the single life too much?" I try to break the tension with a little joke. "I mean I get it if you don't want to; I don't want to bring up any bad memories you had with Sergei and stuff, or for all I know, you have your eye on Lailah too, so-"

"No, it's not that," you shake your head. "It's just that, I never thought you'd be the type of person to ask me such a question. If anything, I thought I would be the one to propose marriage to you, but not this soon."

"So then your answer is-?"

"Of course I'll marry you, Rose!" you say, catching me off guard as your sink your mouth into my own.

I wrap my arms around your waist, pulling you in as close as I humanly can. I savor the taste of short cake still on your lips, hungrily pulling you in as our bodies brush against each other again. I continue to hold you, as if I could never let you go, my lips continuing to pull you back in with every inch you try to pull away, your own mouth doing the same as I try to back away every now and then. Finally we both agree to catch our breath, my heart still throbbing from your reply. I continue to look into your watering green eyes and soft smile, how they reflect my own teary-eyed gaze.

"I love you, Rose," you say as you snuggle against my shoulder.

"I love you too, Alisha," I tell you as I place my lips on your forehead.

So much for the single life, not that either of us is gonna miss it.

"Wait, what did you just say a minute ago?" you pull away from my embrace. "What was that about having an eye on Lailah?"

"You have to admit that she is quite the looker," I remark just to get a rise out of you. "I mean she's got such awesome legs, and then there's those curves of hers; sure she hides her hips with that dress of hers, but you can't help but wonder. Think she'd want to join in one day?"

"Y…you're not serious, are you?" your blush and stutter only widens my smile. "I thought I was the only one that… I… I mean, if that's what you want, I believe I can make that compromise if it means-"

"Relax, I was only kidding!" I say before this goes too far.

"Seriously, Rose, you just had to ruin our proposal by joking about having a ménage-a-trois with Lailah of all people!" you quickly become flustered.

"You actually thought I was serious about Lailah?" I can't help but laugh. "Oh wait, would you have preferred Edna instead?"

"That's not funny, Rose!"

"There's no way I can ever share you," I assure you, placing my hand on your cheek. "I only want you for myself and no one else. Best believe I won't let anyone but you have me either."

"Rose…," you sink back to my chest once again.

Yeah, I won't let anyone else have you. I can't let anyone else have you. But then, could the same be said about me?

Even as you fall asleep in my arms, for the first time in the longest time, I hear 'her' voice again. I remember the smiles we shared, the pleasures of lust she taught me, the bitterness of the reality she saw, and the words she ebbed into my mind that I thought I could ignore up until this very moment.

I feel guilty recalling these memories now of all times, remembering a person I had so much admiration and bitterness toward at the same time. The days on the road which seemed endless back then, the nights in which I regretfully gave her my innocence, and the banter filled with meaningless promises which I thought would be fulfilled one day, all of it was becoming fresh once again.

I try not to disturb you as I crawl out of bed now, the guilt that I couldn't 'be pure' when we first got together overwhelms me. I feel sick now, disgusted that I couldn't really give you everything as you had me; not my first kiss, not my virginity, and not even my first love.

I find myself stopping in front of the window by the kitchen now, staring into the night sky in order to try to look at something to distract me. I try to wash away these thoughts with the present and of our future together, but the darkness of the sky reminds me of things I'd rather forget.

It sickens me as I remember the day she took everything from me, how she lied about what we could have become and what I meant to her. It still hurts me when I think of those days I gave into her desire, how I gave it to her without a second thought. What I hate the most though is the fact that I thought maybe she and I could have made it all work back then, how one day the two of us may have been happy. But then I remember the last thing she had ever said to me, words I tried so hard to repress but still bother me to this day.

"…you'll never be happy…," were the last words she said. "People like us can never truly love, we can never settle down. Keep denying yourself as long as you can, Little Flower, but one day when you think you've found the one meant for you, you'll learn soon enough that there can never be a 'happily ever after'…"

"Lily…," I painfully whisper her name for the first time in nearly twenty years.

Author's Note: And so the drama already begins…

As far as where I got the inspiration to write this story, I think it was as I watching the new English dub for The Vision of Escaflowne anime series as Rose and Alisha's voice actresses, Caitlin Glass and Alexis Tipton, play Hitomi and Merle respectively. I enjoyed their scenes together that I kind of got the idea of revisiting Rose and Alisha's relationship for this story, especially since I still had those scenes I had to cut out of Simply still lying around (although these scenes will be shown in later chapters).

As far as what the contents of each chapter will be, this one was to simply act as a prologue and hint at things to come. Chapter 2 will specifically deal with Rose looking back at her first "loving" relationship with a woman named "Lily". Through this chapter, we'll see Rose express some doubts in getting married, even showing some of her distress and depression that she felt during the events of Simply. Chapter 3 will deal with Alisha noticing Rose becoming more distant in the present and then recalling her first crush when she was younger, that crush being Maltran. With Chapter 3, we'll see Alisha's regrets of the past and present and how it may affect her future with Rose. With Chapter 4, the final chapter, it will consist of Alisha and Rose's wedding and whether or not these two are truly meant to be together. The final chapter will also hint at their eventual fate and how it will affect the party in End of an Era.

In any case, that's all I have to say for now. I hope you're all looking forward to future chapters of this story and End of an Era. Until next time!