A/N I forgot to write this during the first chapter but my second review (huzzah) reminded me of my policy for flamers (no that review wasn't a flame, it just reminded me). I will react to flames but rather than defend myself or argue my goal will be to confuse.
The gift of life
Everyone in the tower was completely drained after the battle, most physically three emotionally, so rather than having her citizens report on what happened and who was lost Halibel allowed all of her followers to get some much needed rest. As Loth got back to his room, after wishing Sun-sun a pleasant sleep, he thought about what would be next for the relationship he was attempting to cultivate.
"Should I try to impress her by defeating some giant hollow?" he thought as he grabbed the pillow, "no she lives with a Vaste Lorde that's more powerful than I'll ever be. Show her where I've been living for the past several centuries; god no, even I found that place depressing and that was before I knew about this place."
One after another ideas flew through his head, each being disregarded almost as soon as they'd formed. Loth picked up the blanket, went to his usual spot on the floor, and made himself comfortable while deciding that after getting some sleep he should be able to come up with something. He also wondered how long it would be until he'd be comfortable sleeping in a real bed. After an hour or so of sleeping Loth shot straight up and mentally hit himself over the head.
"God I'm so stupid sometimes." he hissed through his teeth, "The real world's filled with forests, mountains, cities, oceans, and a million other wonderful things. It absolutely perfect, just go show her the sights, have a good time, and watch out for shinigame, no problem."
With that thought in mind Loth was able to easily get to sleep with dreams of the two of them cruising around the world running through his mind. The next morning he sprang from his slumber like a kid on Christmas and ran as fast as he could up to Sun-sun's room, along the way surprising a rather sleepy Lilinette. When he got to her door Loth took a moment to get his breathing under control before knocking. After about a minute without an answer he said he was coming in and that if she wasn't dressed to please not hit him or throw anything. Closing his eyes and praying Sun-sun didn't keep anything heavy in her room Loth opened the door. After several moments of nothing happening he looked around and found the room to be empty, walking out to the balcony which was also devoid of life he gazed out across the sands, again seeing nobody.
Returning to the hallway Loth went to Apache's and then Mila Rose's rooms in the hopes that they may be able to shed some light on where their soft spoken companion might be; however, their rooms were also completely empty. Going up to Halibel's place proved pointless due to her being absent as well, in fact if Loth hadn't seen Lilinette on his way up he might have been a bit more worried. He went through every floor of the tower and every room he went to was found to be completely devoid of life. Eventually he made his way down to the meeting room just in time to see the doors open and the whole of the tower file out.
As the horde ascended the stairs Loth again stuck himself to the wall so as not to get swarmed and driven back the way he came. Once the majority of the populous had gone Mila Rose, followed by Sun-sun and Apache, began to make their way up. Once they'd reached the next floor Sun-sun split off from the group and began to make her way down a deserted corridor, when she was out of sight of the others she stopped in the middle of the hall.
"You can come out now," she said just before Loth dropped from the ceiling, turning to see him right himself Sun-sun couldn't help but let out a giggle, "was that really necessary, landing on your head like that?"
Once Loth was back on his feet, so to speak, he replied, "If it made you laugh then yes, I'm fine by the way. Anyway you're probably wondering why I'm following you."
"Not really," she said, "I figured you'd show up sooner or later. I'm just surprised you didn't want to speak to me before the funeral."
At that Loth paused before asking, "Wait, what funeral?"
"After every one of our battles we report to Halibel-sama, it's pretty standard, the enemies' strength, their tactics but we also tell her who we lost. After that we take a moment to remember the dead." Sun-sun's voice took on a melancholy tone at that part. "We didn't lose that many but here we are all family."
"Huh, well that's good I suppose," He said, then seeing the look Sun-sun gave him he quickly elaborated, "not the part about the deaths but the whole treating everyone here as family that's, well, that's very refreshing."
"Is it really so odd to treat the people you live with as family?" asked Sun-sun.
"Well I guess I'm just not used to it," Loth replied, "for the last several centuries I've been living as a hermit or a wanderer; I'm not too sure but both are valid. Before that was … let's just say my life wasn't exactly littered with happiness. But enough about that, you just came from a funeral, no need for that depressing talk there's more to life or unlife than loss and sorrow."
"Which reminds me," said Sun-sun, "why are you following me? I'm assuming you want something but usually you just come right out and say it, since you haven't it makes me think that whatever you're going to ask must be either very dangerous or very …"
"Exotic." Offered Loth.
"Compromising." Clarified Sun-sun with a roll of her eyes, "So which is it?"
"Neither, just the whole funeral thing kind of threw me off," he answered, "if you need some time for mourning that's fine by me."
Sun-sun waved it off, "No it's fine, I didn't really know who they were anyway. Think of it like losing a cousin you never met."
"Okay," began Loth, "I was thinking since the fight with Barragan is over and done with for the moment, why not take some time off, you know like get away from this place."
His green haired companion raised an eyebrow at that, "Go where? I'm pretty sure you've notice that this whole world is nothing but sand."
"Yeah, bleak doesn't even begin to describe this place," Loth said, "that's why I was thinking a change of scenery would be a good idea. How would you to see the real world?"
Sun-sun took a step back at that, "I'm sorry, I think I misheard you, did you say the real world?"
"The real world," he said, "oh you'll love it. There are so many different places to go and things to see granted since the general populous can't see us it'll just be you and me but it's still a good place for people watching."
"It's also a good place to get killed by the shinigame," she replied, "sorry but no amount of people to watch or places to go is worth risking our lives for."
"Oh come on, there is so much beauty over on the other side, it would be a shame for you to miss out on it. You know I'd never let anything happen to you, if we see a shinigame I promise we'll pack up and head back to hueco mundo."
Sun-sun shook her head to that, "No, I'm sure it's nice to look at but there is nothing there that could convince me to walk away from my family like that."
"I'm not asking you to abandon your home," said Loth, "just go out for a few days, a week at the most. Trust me you won't regret it."
Sun-sun began to move past him back towards the stairs, "Thanks but I'm quite content with my life here."
After she had gone Loth let out a sigh and wondered what he was going to do now that that plan had been shot down. Figuring that if his tenacity could get her to give him her name then it should work for this little endeavor, so the next day he asked again saying that they could even visit her old home however Sun-sun immediately declined that offer. And so it went, everyday Loth would offer to take Sun-sun to some, as he put it, wondrous place from the Himalayas to the Mayan pyramids and each time she would politely say that she would prefer to stay in the tower with her family.
Weeks went by and Loth began to feel that perhaps he should change strategies, "After all," he thought, "no matter how one describes the world it will never do it justice."
The next day Sun-sun was both surprised and a little disappointed when Loth didn't show up to ask her to go with him to the real world. The day after was a no show as well. Feeling a bit anxious she went to find Halibel. Once found she asked if Stark and Lilinette had left to which Halibel said that yes, they had gone yesterday morning but at the sad look Sun-sun had on her face she quickly went on to say that Loth hadn't gone with them and had instead opened a garganta after they left, saying he'd be back soon.
Loth meanwhile was tramping about the Canada/American border, wondering exactly what he should bring back, food was out of the question since he didn't think they could digest anything that wasn't made up of spirit particles. He supposed he could steal some piece of art or bring back a book but that wouldn't entice her to accompany him on these little outings; instead she would probably ask him to bring her back some more while she stayed in the tower.
So here he was, racking his brain, about a mile south of Montreal and walking in no real direction. Eventually he came upon a small French village used mainly as a waypoint by fur traders. Subconsciously deciding to take yet another detour and explore the place Loth found that there was a little less than a hundred people living there. He wandered around the village, thinking that some of the pelts in the stores might be a good gift but then discarding that idea as giving the fur of a dead animal that eerily reminded him of Apache didn't seem very romantic. Just as he was about to say goodbye to the quaint little town Loth happened upon another small shop, though this one sold something much different than the usual beaver and deer pelts, rather this one sold a wide array of flowers and like that he knew what would entice Sun-sun into coming here.
Browsing the mostly empty shop Loth picked out several red roses, tiger lilies, peonies, and bloodroot the last just because he liked the name though it still looked nice. Grabbing a vase by the counter, which was unoccupied due to the elderly shop keep having fainted once the first few flowers rose seemingly on their own, Loth filled it with water, arranged the flowers in the vase, and tore open a garganta back to hueco mundo.
Glad that the flowers had survived the trip Loth made his way up to Sun-sun's room, passing a few people on the way up he saw that everyone was doing what they normally did meaning Sun-sun should have an abundance of free time on her hands. Before knocking on her door he mentally prepared himself and did some last minute arranging to the flowers. When that was taken care of he announced his presence and, after he heard from inside that the door wasn't locked, entered.
"So," began Sun-sun, "what did you want to talk about?"
"Actually there was something I wanted to show you," said Loth as he presented the flowers to which Sun-sun's eyes practically lit up. As she took the vase in her sleeve cover arms he went on, "it's not much compared to the rest of the world but I thought you might like it."
Sun-sun smiled as she looked up from the flowers to face Loth, "Oh alright, tomorrow we'll go just let me clear it with Halibel first."
Loth smiled at that, "Wonderful, you won't regret this trust me."
For the next few hours Loth regaled Sun-sun with stories of the places he'd been saying they could go to any of them. After he left Sun-sun went up to Halibel's room to inform her that she would be gone for awhile and though she had some concerns the mistress of the tower wished her surrogate daughter well and told her to not be gone for too long.
The next day for the first time Sun-sun was up before Loth and knocking on his door before he was even out of bed forcing him to quickly grab his clothing and run his hands through his hair to make himself a bit more presentable before opening the door and showing her in. When she asked why she was coming in Loth said that the balcony in his room was the closest place he could make the doorway.
When they came out on the other side the first thing Sun-sun notice was that it was much cooler than she was used to, the next was they were standing in the middle of a cobblestone street face a tall hill with a large fortress on top.
"Where are we?" she asked.
"Salzburg," answered Loth as he looked around with a smile on his face, "located in the northwest corner of Austria. I figured in this location you can kinda see a lot of the different terrain in the world; this place has got a beautiful city, a large expanse of forest, mountains, and even a river. So, what do you think?"
Sun-sun took a look around her but all she could see were buildings on either side of the street, "Let's go up there," she said pointing to the fortress, "we can't see much from down here."
Loth led the way, the general populous of the city subconsciously let them pass, probably due to the spiritual pressure they could almost feel. When they got to the roof of the building they gazed out at the surrounding landscape.
"Oh my," whispered Sun-sun as she looked across the water to see the great expanse of forest and behind it rose mountains which seemed to touch the sky, the snow at the top glistening with the afternoon sun.
Still with a grin on his face Loth turned to his companion, "So what do you think?"
"I … I think the stories you told have vastly understated how," here she paused, looking for the right word, "majestic this place is. And the whole world is like this?"
"Nope," said Loth, "everywhere else is completely unique; there are places where it snows year round, cities covered in lights, I've even seen a city that was built on top of water. So what do you think was it worth it to come here?"
Sun-sun turned to him with a smile on her face, "Yes, yes it was."
