Chapter I: Tracing Back

About a week had passed since Rex, Pyra and the rest of the crew had arrived in Elysium. Zeke, Pandoria and Turters went back to Tantal, Morag and Brighid had gone back to Mor Ardain, Tora and Poppi were in Gormott, and Nia and Dromarch had begun exploring the new continent.

Rex's role as leader of the Garfront mercenaries was going to make him constantly busy, organizing teams to help refugees from the cities destroyed by Malos' attacks. But before that, he wanted to relax for a bit. And Alrest couldn't really blame him. He had been through a lot in only a short time. Finally, he could rest and be with her, the girl he had gone on such a grand journey with and had come to fall in love with. Now that he had settled back in Fonsett, he wanted to go talk to his parents at their graves again.

"Hey Mum, Dad" said Rex. "We made it. I promised Pyra that I would take her here and I finally did it. I… Mum, Dad, I love her. We've been through so much together. She's perfect, and I know you would think so too."

Pyra, kneeling on the ground with Rex and holding his hand, blushed. She knew how he felt, and he knew how she felt. But Rex saying she was perfect in front of his parents? The red-haired aegis felt flattered regardless. He was embarrassingly direct about her in front of his parents.

"Thank you for watching over us, you two" he said with a tear running down his cheek. Maybe from joy or sadness, or a combination of the two.

"Think it's time to head back?" asked Rex after he pushed the tears back in eyes.

"Well, um...I guess," responded Pyra. She wanted to talk to Rex about the last time they visited his parents' graves.

"What is it?" inquired Rex.

"It's just… um… well.. can we talk about it when we get back home?" she said.

"Sure," said Rex, a bit confused.

Rex was currently in the process of building a house for himself, Pyra, and Mythra. Being back in Fonsett for such a short time, the house was still being blueprinted. At the moment they were staying at Corrine's. Sometimes that wasn't the best place to talk. Whenever Corrine was out in the garden, Mythra was doing something that prevented Pyra and Rex from having any time alone. This time she had Kora, Praxis, and Vale over. Rex was keen to make sure they weren't seen.

"Hey Pyra, would you mind going up to the cliff so we can talk?" asked Rex

"Sure, but why?" she responded in question.

"Its just that…"

Pyra looked inside the front door and saw her sister talking and eating cake with Praxis, Kora, and Vale. No thanks. She wasn't in the mood to be teased or to be asked awkward questions. It's not that she didn't want to talk about Rex, she kind of did. But the Blades had a way of asking inappropriate, personal, and sometimes downright rude questions. Even Pyra had a breaking point, as kind and sweet as she was. She may have stuck her face in the doorway for a bit too long, however.

"Oh, hey Pyra!" said Kora.

Darnit!

"Why don't you come sit down and talk with us?" she added.

The girls were curious about Rex and Pyra, so Architect knows how awkward the questions would be, especially from Mythra and Kora.

"Sorry, I'd love to, but Rex and I were about to go on a walk" she responded, unaware of the door she had just opened to more teasing.

As much as she blushed about it, she didn't mind it that much. She actually secretly liked being teased. Plus, she liked talking to people. But she had something serious on her mind now.

"Awwwww!" the four said in unison.

"We'll let you have your couple time," said Mythra, expecting a very embarrassed reaction.

"Thanks," said Pyra.

She slipped out before her sister could find another way to try and embarrass her again. The two walked towards the cliff behind Corrine's house holding each other's hands, not really caring if the Blades saw them.

Once they arrived at the cliff, they stood on the edge and stared at the remnants of the World Tree, perfectly visible from where they were standing thanks to where Fonsett Island was now positioned. It was a small titan, so it didn't merge with Elysium like the larger ones did. Instead, the titan stayed a couple peds off of where the Leftherian Titan landed.

When they arrived, Pyra let go of Rex's hand. When holding each other's hands, they both felt a sense of security. Maybe it was the life force they shared throughout their journey to Elysium, or maybe it was the fact that their life revolved around protecting each other for what seemed like so long yet was but a short time. Whenever they let go it felt like a flashback to the First Low Orbit Station after defeating Malos, when they thought they would be separated forever. When close to her, Rex felt thankful that that wasn't case, and that she came back to him.

"So, what was it, Pyra?" inquired the Salvager.

"It was about the last time we visited your parents' graves," the Aegis responded.

"Did you want to know more about my parents?" he asked. "Because I can't remember much about my Mum and Dad."

"No, its about… well, what happened after I talked to them, " Pyra said as she refrained from rolling her eyes. Yes, she wanted to know more about Rex and his family, but she was making obvious that it wasn't about that, right?

"What d'you mean?" asked her confused Driver.

"Well...I was trying to suggest something when I was talking to you," she responded. This would be difficult. How do you talk about your boyfriend's density directly to his face?

"I still don't get it," he said.

She had to be direct, yet she didn't want to hurt his feelings or give him the wrong idea. She thought Rex's density was cute and part of his charm. She didn't want that to change.

"It just seemed like you were kind of oblivious," the girl said as quickly as possible.

"Huh?" he responded, even more confused.

Now he had to think. What was she trying to imply back then? What did I not understand that made her think I was being oblivious?

"And I told them not to worry, because I'm doing everything in my power to look after you."

"I'd love to have a family as big as yours Rex."

"That's alright, Azurda, I've got a surprising amount of patience."

Of course, and I was blind to it the entire time. She wanted me to do something!

That look on his face. Pyra could tell that he had come to a realization. She was worried that he'd be upset that he had been unable to understand such obvious hints But that thankfully wasn't the case.

Rex laughed to himself.

"What is it?" asked Pyra.

"Yeah, it really is. I guess that's probably because you made it, Pyra."

"Remember that time that time when we were at the camp fire back in Gormott, and I flirted with you" the boy asked.

"Huh?"

"Ahh! No, what? I didn't mean it like that! You're just, erm, really good at making fires… That's all."

"It's what I do."

It had been quite possibly one of the worst flirting crimes ever committed by a guy. She still loved Rex's awkward flirting attempts and strange pick up lines, though. It was another thing that was part of his charm, according to her.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that," said Rex while trying to find an excuse for such an abomination. "You were one of the first girls I ever had the chance to flirt with. It was just, erm...well, new for me."

"Don't be sorry, I thought it was adorable," she said as her Driver began to blush. "Do you remember how I intentionally scooted close to you"

"Yeah," Rex replied. "I, uh, well, I kind of wanted to do something to return the favor, but I just thought that it would be, well...not appropriate. I guess me trying to flirt with you was my way of doing so."

Pyra giggled. "Well, I think you did a good job. Remember that morning in Argentum?"

Rex could remember it. Pyra was trying to take care of his wounds while, seemingly on purpose not paying attention to his personal space, which he honestly didn't mind. The pair had ended up reminiscing and laughing at all of the missed opportunities that had happened on their journey. Whenever Rex tried to take the initiative, he utterly failed. Whenever Pyra tried to take the initiative, she never went all the way. Like when she learned how to be "Blushy Crushy". But Rex doesn't have to know about that. That was between her, Nia, Tora and Poppi. Needless to say he'd find out eventually.

After a while the pair had decided to sit down and watch the beautiful sunset unfold in front of them. Pyra had gone on to think about the first time Rex and her went to his Parents' graves.

"And this girl, is Pyra. I know you'd love her."

She recalled the loving look she had given him then, and a couple other times that Rex hadn't noticed.

This reminded her, somehow, of the reason for their quest that she had kept hidden for so long. She was distraught over this. This was the man she loved. She should have trusted him with this secret. Rex was so optimistic that it rubbed off on her. He would have helped her through it, talked her out of it, told her not to ask such a terrible thing to her father. A tear streamed down Pyra's face and she began to cry.

"Pyra?!" said Rex "What's wrong?"

"I lied. I kept the truth from you," she said through her tears, "I made you come along on a suicide mission!"

"P-Pyra..." said Rex as he put an arm around her. She sunk her face into his shoulder as much as she could. "Don't ever think that our adventure was a bad thing. It gave me a reason to live: to protect you and Mythra. What matters to me is that you realized that you have a purpose in life."

Pyra had finally realized the truth. Through going on this journey that started as her simply wanting to kill herself as she silently suffered through the guilt she felt, both she and the boy had grown an understanding of themselves, and of their purposes in life: each other. Though they no longer shared a life force, they could not live without each other. And it was moments like this that made Rex and Pyra realize that. The ruby haired girl flung her arms around the brown haired boy and embraced him while holding back the tears, now of joy.

"Thank you, Rex," said Pyra. "I love you," she added with no hesitation.

"I love you too," the salvager responded.

The two broke their embrace, and Pyra looked at the boy with the loving stare that she given him many times before. For once in his life, Rex couldn't resist the urge, and moved his lips to hers, with Pyra following suit. The kiss lasted but a few seconds, but that was long enough.

As night time hit the pair laid down in the grass and watched the stars, their hands in each others. Pyra moved Rex's arm around her as she snuggled into him. Both where comfortable where they were, but were keen not to fall asleep, or else Mythra and Kora might see them cuddling. But even if that did happen, they wouldn't see anything they hadn't seen before. Right?