"I can see dicks inside you. That's GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYY!"
- Below Alongside the Ailment by Durb
"The Greeks had a tremendous sense of brotherhood and fraternity. The men were very close to one another. After all, their motto was 'Never Leave Your Buddy's Behind.'"
- Pierce Brosnan playing a WWII historian on Saturday Night Live
"…bone-crunching matrimony."
- Truncated version of the Yamashiro troll profile I put at the beginning of "Territorial Modulations"
The emperor and his empress sat on the deck of the luxury liner as they watched the tranquil horizon over the Chaldean Sea. Vibrant parasols were arranged around their chairs to provide a comfortable shade and to keep the space behind them covered in discrete shadows. The husband and wife stretched their feet toward the gentle waves as the boat quietly sailed and churned the water beneath them.
They were always holding each other's hands on their wicker armrests, and glancing toward one another with love in their eyes. Together they were a shining example of the traditional wholesome family. This was the dream they always wanted to share together: A peaceful afternoon paradise where it was just the two of them.
"The Guards are being noisy today," Kazuya said in an unoffended, matter-of-factly, and slightly amused way.
"Let them have their fun. They've been working really hard lately," Akane shyly chuckled under her breath.
"Did you ever expect them to get this close?" The emperor asked his wife curiously, lightly tugging a pair of gold-rimmed sunglasses down the bridge of his nose.
"They're just following the Founder's will." The empress shrugged with the tiniest hint of a suggestive grin on her lips. "It helps in the long term when we Otomes keep all our affections and yearnings between each other. You forget I became the Ugly Duckling in my class when I fell in love with you." Her grin turned into a soft nostalgic blush.
"I've got to say, you sponsoring Roxy's Meister contract was probably the best thing for both of them." Kazuya nodded along with his wife's brilliant thinking. "Those two can take on the world when they're together."
"It's not that complicated," Akane humbly shook her head. "Erstin goes wherever you go. I go wherever you go. Roxy goes wherever I go. So, as long as I'm her Master, Roxy goes wherever Erstin goes."
"Was that another one of Shizuru's ideas?" Kazuya asked with a smirk.
"Hm. A little bit of her idea. A little bit of mine." Akane looked back out into the bright blue horizon with a peaceful smile. "This is how I'm paying back Roxy's mom for helping me out when I was the new Meister here."
"So who's she really guarding, then? Her family house? You? … Erstin?" Kazuya slowly leaned in his chair so he was even closer to his wife.
"Sometimes the bodyguard needs her own bodyguard." Akane gave him another innocent shrug.
Two ballerinas were lounging together in a graceful duet on the cushions just behind Akane and Kazuya. Roxy was resting on the corner of the luscious couch with her arms stretched in a carrying posture. Princess Erstin was seated next to her, partially curled in her lap, with her back against Roxy's chest and her hands raised so her fingers were grasping Roxy's palms. Erstin turned her head over her shoulder while Roxy curled her neck downward, joining the two war-dancers in a long, deep kiss. Every stretch and twirl they rehearsed together was accompanied by their constant muffled giggling.
Their romance was modestly hidden in the shadows of the parasols. They attended the trip wearing light and dainty sundresses that almost could have passed for nightgowns. Erstin wore the pale cream and slate colors of her uniform, but sewn in a much more casual and abbreviated form. Her mother's old colors. Roxy wore the colors of House Monique: Deep rose red trimmed in black garlands.
They were as passionate as two lovers could be while remaining fully dressed in their small romantic retreat. The Platinum and Malachite GEMS twinkled on their ears when they occasionally lifted their heads into the sunlight, just making sure the emperor and empress were as safe and comfortable as them.
"One dream cruise with you, and I'm all healed up." Princess Erstin cheerfully purred against her partner's neck when their kiss ended.
"Thank Fumi for that. I hate seeing you hurt," Roxy said out of faith toward her Divine Founder, and out of gratitude for the nanomachines' speedy restorative abilities. Only a couple days ago, the princess had been a bandaged-up lump of welts and bruises from her previous mission. Now it was all just smooth, precious, porcelain skin.
"I wish this could last forever." Erstin's purr started to change into a weak disappointed groan.
"It will," Roxy said with a gentle reassuring smile, refusing to let the passage of time threaten their cherished union. "You're the First Princess of Cardair. No one can take that away from you."
"But you might not always be my knight." Erstin doubtfully lowered her voice. She looked like she was almost pouting. "What if your family ever sets up a marriage for you?"
That's something Roxy never had to worry about. Her parents deeply respected the emperor and empress, and she was free to make her own decisions on how to serve the royal family. She already decided staying by the princess's side was tantamount to the entire kingdom's peace and safety.
"Don't tease me like that, Ers. You'll make me have an identity crisis."
Roxy playfully tickled Erstin's nose with a little puff of breath, then sealed away all her worries with another tender kiss.
Author's notes:
Stukasa said "Mai Otome Freedom" didn't have enough yuri in it. So here's some more yuri.
Yeah, I guess I solved the "Who is Roxy's Master?" mystery real good.
It's a shame the actual Shimako couldn't exist in this timeline. I think her thing with Yui in the Teito Moyu visual novel really would have worked out well for her in a setting like this, where the nobility system actively encourages the super-samurai-princesses to be ultra-gay for each other so their nanomachines don't get broken.
When I was looking for that stupid meme autotune remix of Down with the Sickness, I wound up finding a different stupid autotune remix someone else made. I kinda like that version better. There's a part where David Draiman says "GET UP COME ON GET DOWN WITH THE [VIOL-IN]" and the instrumental track switches to a violin over the ridiculous autotune singing. It's like listening to the Yuki Kajiura remix of a Disturbed song.
Addendum to the previous note: "Get down, come on get down with the downness. You downer get down, come on get down with the down down" is probably best way I can describe the tone of any typical Muv-Luv story.
The physical setting for this fanfic kept changing while I was drafting it. First, I imagined it as a big fancy Disney horse carriage with Kazu steering the reins. It was supposed to be like an old timey update to "Driving Mr. Marmalade Boy." Then I started picturing the horse carriage as a flying luxury liner, but I scrapped that idea because I thought it was too repetitive. Erstin and Roxy just finished blowing up an airship in ruthless Dirty Pair-esque fashion in "Mai Otome Freedom." And an older story I wrote called "The Menu" already did the "medieval lesbians being very lesbian on an airship" thing anyway. So then I turned the flying luxury liner into a regular luxury liner on the water. Maybe it's a futuristic hovercraft luxury liner than can travel just as easily across land and sea.
What's a funky-sounding Sonic 3 level theme I can use for this very, very gay fanfic? Hydrocity Zone, maybe?
This composite character of Kazusa Yamashiro and Kasumi Yoshizawa is really ripping her brain in half, huh? It gives you some food for thought on the political implications of her world, huh? And I like how the little traces of Rin Tohsaka I gave her end up worming their way into her interactions.
Speaking as someone who obtained a Prototype ZZ Gundam figure today, I think it's interesting how Akane Soir's color scheme matches the Prototype ZZ Gundam. At least somewhat. It's like a combination of her Robe colors and her maid uniform colors. The white, dark blue (especially the blue sprites), and yellow/gold parts resemble her Meister Robe, while the darker muted grey parts are reminiscent of the scarf and leggings on her formal uniform. I wonder if Sunrise designed her that way intentionally. Probably not. (This reminds me of that rando Japanese blog I found a couple years ago where they were pointing out how Monica's color scheme resembles the Zeta Plus and Zaku III.)
This fanfic is using Roxy's childhood backstory I wrote for "Roppongi Shinjuu." Roxy's mom was a humble lady-in-waiting who was a holdover from the Argos XIV regime, and she became one of Akane's first friends / supporters / confidantes within Cardair after Akane was stationed there. Roxy and Erstin Kix were born a few weeks apart and literally grew up in the same nursery together. The only difference is Erstin Kx isn't a freaky sci-fi Ayashi no Ceres in-vitro baby in this timeline. This version of Erstin is a wholesome homemade lovebabby.