"Nnnnhhh!"
Bell stretched extensively while he sat up in bed, he had a really good sleep and that was something for him. Nearly every night since he returned from the 37th Floor, Bell had nightmares. They had gone down a bit after he had a long talk with Ryu and was very happy that she got better too. He was more worried about her than him...but he still had nightmares. Well...he had nightmares...at least since he went on the Quest together with Ais. Sleeping by her side...or that one night she on top of him...had helped Bell more than he could say...it healed him.
His heart was filled with love for her...and there was the problem. His heart had so much love in it that his courage leaked out, Bell wanted to confess to Ais...he would confess to Ais...soon...but he didn´t know how to do it.
And there was no one he could ask, Welf had a special relationship with Hephaistos and it would be cruel to ask the other girls for advice...Bell wasn´t that blind about their feelings...he was afraid of the day when he would tell them about Ais...it would surely make some of them sad...
He wriggled his toes and pulled away his blanket, it was a wonderful day as he could see through his half-closed curtains. Bell heard birds chirping outside and saw the first sunrays.
When did I feel so refreshed the last time? Well...when I was down there with Ais...
Bell blushed lightly at the memory...it was so daring to walk into the dungeon with just the two of them...even Ais had acted strange sometimes. He walked to his windows and opened them wide after pulling away the curtains. Bell liked
it when the fresh morning air filled his room, he hung up his blanket and pillow over the windows so they could ventilate. The sky over Orario was of a clear blue color, only a few tiny clouds drifted along it, so it would become a beautiful day.
He took fresh clothes out of his closet, threw his towel over his shoulder, and left his room, outside he saw a familiar elf.
"Good morning, Ms. Lefiya."
"Oh, good morning, Bell."
He was still surprised that Lefiya only used his first name now, but all that mattered was that she looked much, much better than the night he had carried her to the Mansion. She wore a cute, pink pajama and had her towel with her too.
In the past it would have never been possible for her that Bell saw her like this...but her view about him changed...very much. Lefiya was at the Mansion for a month now and she really liked it here.
"You and Ryu will leave the city today, right?"
"Yes, I just hope that our time off is enough..."
She looked a bit uneasy about skipping work at the pub, Bell chuckled when he remembered how Mama Mia could be.
"Do you two have everything you need for the journey?"
"Yes, don´t worry...ahm...Bell?"
"Yes?"
"Is it true...that you...were alone on...that quest...with...Ms. Ais...?" She fidgeted lightly and glanced at him.
"Yeah this is true, we were in the dungeon for three days."
"Oh..."
In the past she would have shrieked and maybe thrown herself on Bell...but now...
"Is something bothering you, Ms. Lefiya?"
"N-No, everything good. I will go shower now..."
"Ms. Lefiya, that's the men's bathroom."
"O-Oh! My bad!"
He saw that the tips of her ears were red but he had no clue what might be wrong with her. Bell shrugged his shoulders and went into the men's bathroom, undressing before he took a morning shower. While he started the water, he wondered if Ais also had a good morning.
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"Mmmnnnh!" Ais stretched extensively while she woke up in bed.
When she opened her eyes, she smiled as she saw two familiar red eyes and white hair. She pulled her bunny plushy into her arms and kissed the snout, giggling.
"Good morning, Bell."
Her cheeks were slightly red, she had done that every morning since she returned from the dungeon with Bell. Ais didn´t know why, but the plushy lightly smelled like Bell...made it had taken some of his scent in the tent. Either way, she liked it ... very much.
Two weeks ago she was with Bell on the quest inside the dungeon...her heart was in turmoil...Ais wanted to tell Bell what she felt...she just thought about how to do it. Her friends were no real help, Tiona told her she should just tell Bell.
And Tione´s idea let Ais squeak and blush fiercely...the amazons were no help.
Ais put down the plushy on her pillow and took her stuff to take a quick morning shower.
"Bell, you protect my room, yes?" She giggled again.
The life in the Loki Mansion had calmed down after the recent events. She thought about the last evening when Bete finally returned to the Mansion...and behaved significantly differently.
"I´m sorry...for what happened." He averted his eyes not because he was shy...but he couldn´t stand looking people in the eyes when he apologized.
Finn had smiled lightly. "Tell that to Lefiya when the time is right."
"I will."
Ais´ eyes had widened...she had never before seen Bete like this...what might have happened in the month he was gone?`
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Ais walked toward the bathroom when she saw Riveria, the elf was about to put a shield on the door. Whenever she hung up that shield, the women of the Familia knew they shouldn´t enter the bathroom, Riveria didn´t want anyone to see her naked body.
Even though there was one exception and that was Ais.
"Riveria, good morning."
"Ah Ais, good morning, do you want to take a shower?"
"Yes...but I can wait.."
"No it´s okay, come in."
"Thank you...ahm...Riveria?"
"Yes?"
"Do you know how to confess to someone?"
"WHAT?!"
As much as she wanted Ais to be happy...Riveria had a hard time letting "her little girl" go and grow up... She knew that Ais wasn´t her daughter...but she was her "Mother".
When the day came it would be hard for Riveria with Tiona, Tione, Lefiya, Alicia, and many more.
At least it wasn´t Bell who would take all of her girls away...She wouldn't take it if Bell tried to build a harem.
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About the time when Bell and Ais woke up in their beds, a young, red-haired man was walking through Orario already.
I wonder what she wants so early.
Welf had gotten a message yesterday that Hephaistos wanted to see him in her private room, and he should bring a few smithing tools with him...and gloves.
That she wanted to see him was reason enough for him to go...maybe...could he hope for a smithing date?...
Would she...but I haven´t crafted an outstanding weapon...yet...
He arrived soon at Babel, since Hephaistos´ personal forge was in one of the rooms there, only the goddess and those she gave permission were allowed there.
"Oy Welf." A smith from the Familia that he knew nodded to him.
"Yo." He raised a hand while he kept walking.
Even after leaving the Familia, Welf had a good relationship with the other members. Welf used one of the elevators to move upwards while whistling silently. He had come often here and knew the way well enough.
As soon as the elevator stopped and the doors opened, Welf turned to the left and kept walking, after a few moments he arrived at the door.
After knocking he heard a voice from the inside. "Come in, Welf."
She knows it´s me by the way I knock?
With a raised eyebrow, Welf opened the door and walked inside. It was something like a hidden room in the back of one of the shops, no one except a few people knew this was there. It wasn´t a forge but Hephaistos´ office where she used to work on paperwork or relax for a few minutes.
"Good morning Welf."
Instead of sitting in her chair, Hephaistos leaned at her desk and was looking at a few papers, maybe a letter. She wore her usual dark pants, high boots, and a white shirt.
"You are as beautiful as always, Hephaistos."
"Eh?!" Blushing in surprise, the goddess looked up.
Welf grinned and walked towards her. "So now what do you need me for?"
She needed a moment to catch herself again after his sudden compliment, Hephaistos coughed and arranged the notes from the letter she was reading. "Don´t surprise me like that, Welf."
"Hehe, sorry."
"Okay, what I w-"
Hephaistos was interrupted when the door was suddenly pushed open with force.
"Boss! I can´t believe you try to let me out of this!"
An indignantly looking Tsubaki had pushed the door open and stormed inside. "Oh, morning Welf."
"Morning..."
Hephaistos sighed while her captain walked towards her, fast. "Tsubaki..."
"Don´t say no! I won´t accept it!"
"I wanted to go and tell you right now..."
"Oh..."
"Yes.."
God and mortal looked at each other, Tsubaki smiled lightly embarrassed, Welf didn´t say anything but went to close the door.
"Tsubaki, I know you want to be part of this and I need your skill anyway. I wouldn´t be cruel enough to let you out of this, you know?"
"That´s why you are the best boss!" The busty woman grinned happily.
Welf came to them. "So, what do you have in mind?"
"Oh Welf, are you hoping for something naughty with the boss and me hmmm?" Tsubaki grinned and then laughed.
"No!"
"Tsubaki!" Even Hephaistos was perplexed.
"I´m just joking, geez you two are too uptight."
The other two couldn´t say much, Tsubaki was half dwarf, half amazon...
"No! Not something like that." Hephaistos coughed again, she wasn´t good in handling such themes. "It is about work."
"Oh?"
"I´m all ears." Tsubaki crossed her arms under her chest.
"Not here, follow me."
Hephaistos walked to one of the shelves and looked over her shoulder. After Welf and Tsubaki had turned their faces away, Hephaistos did something with the shelf and it swang back, revealing a hidden room...her personal forge.
Tsubaki casually walked inside since it wasn´t her first time here, but Welf made big eyes.
"Wow...such a magnificent forge...it really suits you."
"As happy as I am hearing your compliments, enough of that please, I have to focus."
Hephaistos closed the "door" behind them and walked inside the forge, where she had forged the Hestia Knife and other weapons of high quality. In the middle of the forge was the anvil, runes were engraved on the surface, and on top of the anvil was a big bundle, bigger than Welf´s head.
She still had the letter with her with different notes in it.
"I will come straight to the point, I need the help of you two to forge something."
"You need our help?" Welf looked curious.
"Yes Welf, I got an order to forge a special weapon."
"It is a magic weapon...I guess."
"You are right, but the new kind that only you can produce."
"How did you get an order to forge such a weapon if only we three know about this?"
"Let´s say the customer is someone who has my infinite trust and has ways to know this."
"Oh?" Now he was really curious.
"I can´t tell you two the name."
Welf´s gaze wandered to Tsubaki, who shrugged her shoulders.
"Well I guess...it is okay. What kind of weapon shall it be?"
"A sword."
"Hm okay...any special wishes?"
"Yes...we have to use this." She pointed with her hand to the bundle on top of the anvil.
"And this is?" He noticed that Tsubaki´s eye shone already.
"Oh, you will see." Hephaistos smiled and took a rod that leaned on a wall before she put on gloves.
Welf got more and more curious.
Slowly and carefully, Hephaistos used the rod to lift up some of the leather that was closed around the bundle. It was more like something wrapped in leather, in the moment she lifted up some of the leather, they heard a loud bang and saw...a spark.
The leather fell to the side and revealed an ore lump...but one like Welf had never seen before. Part of it was black, but most had a bright, strong blue color like cobalt...and it looked like small bolts were flowing around under the surface of the orb.
"Wait...Is that...don´t tell me?!" Welf was shocked, he had heard legends about something like that.
"Elementium!" Tsubaki´s one visible eye shone and her voice shuddered in excitement.
"No way..."
Elementium was a special ore that was so rare that most smiths thought it was just a legend. It couldn´t be found in the dungeon, only on the surface and the last chunk was found over a thousand years ago. Elementium had resulted far, far, far back in the past when monsters still ran amok on the surface before the gods descended onto the surface.
From time to time it had happened that a god used his or her Arcana to strike down a big haul of monsters, and when this Arcana hit the ground and there was Orichalcum below that...sometimes it merged with the ore.
"You are telling me you got your hands on the rarest ore in the whole world?!"
"Yes, well my customer did."
"How?! Why...I mean...HOW?!"
"My customer told me to not ask questions, do you want to help me forge it or not?"
"Of course, I will! But allow me one question."
"Sure."
"I see lightning...and bolts...who was the god that...did that?"
Hephaistos sighed lightly. "To be honest I can´t say it."
"You can´t?"
"No, there were a few gods in heaven that used lightning, Thor, Zeus, I did...and a few others...I think Jupiter also did that."
"Wait...you used lightning? You are the goddess of the forge...your element is fire."
"Of course it is, but I am sure you heard the legends that it was me who forged the lightning of Zeus."
"I thought that were just...fairy tales."
"No...ha...that was something back then."
Welf didn´t dare to ask how old exactly Hephaistos was...
"Enough talk! Let us start smelting!" Tsubaki was the most excited of them.
.
.
Hephaistos looked for a moment at the letter she got.
Hephaistos.
I hope you are well and your business is booming.
I have a favor to ask of you, I am sending you this to forge something for me.
Actually, it is for someone else, I hope you will do it.
Of course, I will pay for all of your efforts, but in return, I expect the best work you ever made.
Zeus
After reading again, Hephaistos folded the letter and put it away, only putting down the notes about the sword on a nearby table.
Do you want me to forge a replica of "that" sword? There should be a limit for how much you can dote on your "grandson"...Old man...
"Okay you two, put on your gloves, this is gonna be a hard piece of work!"
"Okay, Boss!"
"Yes, Ma´am!"
Smelting the ore would take a while...and it may have been better if Hephaistos had noticed the backside of the letter...
"Oh and Hephaistos, make sure that your forge is isolated."
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.
Bell looked into the sky while he walked towards Babel...it was strange. In the morning it was still bright with only a few clouds...but now the sky got dark really fast and clouds over clouds gathered. What was strange about that, was the clouds seemed to end around five kilometers away from Orario...as if a massive plate of clouds hung over Orario.
He hoped that Ryu and Lefiya had already left the city...the clouds got darker by the second and it got really windy. Every store owner he could see was hectic to close the shop or stall.
"I wonder i-"
Suddenly he heard a loud noise, it was a sound that was rarely heard in Orario...the big warn sirene of Babel. It was a magic item that produced a howling sound so loud that it could be heard in all of Orario and around the city.
When this sirene sounded, it meant that adventurers were called for help. There was a second magic item that started its work only moments after the sirened stopped howling.
"Adventurers of Orario, the Guild issues an emergency Quest! Everyone that wants to help our farmers shall come to Babel!"
The sound came from a horn that was next to the sirene, the voice that had spoken was someone from the guild.
An emergency quest for the farmers...
Bell looked up again...his eyes widened. The clouds were rotating, not only in a large circle but into each other and around...he had never seen something like this before. An enormous thunder rolled over the city as the first lightning bolt rushed out of the sky and into Babel.
The tower was protected by magic against the wrath of the elements and some of those defensive spells attracted lightning to protect the city. The bigger Familias had lightning rods on top of their Mansions, as well as the Hestia Familia.
A sudden gust of wind and first raindrops fell down, it wasn´t normal that a storm gathered so fast.
At the north gate of Orario, two elves ran out of the gate before it was closed because of the storm and kept running. Ryu and Lefiya ran as fast as they could to evade the apocalyptic storm that was about to start...not the best start for their journey.
They covered their ears and ran...both came out of the rain but only after they got soaked, it was a good thing that their backpacks were waterproof and that they wore travel clothes, that prevented the water from reaching their underwear, with wet underwear they would have to change clothes right away...they still got really wet. And even with escaping the downpour, the thunder was really loud.
At the end of the day, they would camp in a small forest and take a bath at a small lake inside it, at least the water got a bit warm with a magic item they used.
He thought for a moment about returning to his home, but an emergency Quest by the guild wasn´t issued just like that. So Bell continued his way to Babel, but faster than intended. The clouds got darker and darker, unnoticed by everyone in the city, there wasn´t only lightning hitting Babel, it looked like a few were coming from Babel towards the clouds...
When Bell reached the entrance of Babel it started to rain heavily, those who didn´t need to be on the streets for some reason ran home or searched for shelter.
This wasn´t just a thunderstorm...it looked like the unleashed wrath of Olympia.
The thunderclaps were so loud that most elves in Orario had to cover their ears even with closed windows. But not only elves but most beast people had also very good ears.
The owner of a certain pub had problems bringing her two cats to work again, even with the storm the pub was filled.
Thunderclap after thunderclap, each louder than the one before echoed through the city, even the adventurers in the highest Floors of the dungeon heard the sound. Bell ran the last meters to prevent getting completely wet, the guild was in turmoil.
Guild staff and adventurers were busy closing most of the gates of Babel because the sudden wind howled through the hall. He noticed a familiar face.
"Ms. Eina!"
"Bell?! Ah, it´s good you are here!"
They had to yell because of the storm outside.
"I heard the sirene and something about an emergency quest!"
"Yes, the farmers around the city are in danger. The storm came too sudden and they didn´t have time to secure their crops!"
It was a known problem for Bell when he was still back in the village, they had used tarps to cover up the fields to protect the plants. Not doing that would guarantee the destruction of the harvest.
"I didn´t know there are fields right next to the city!"
Finally, the gates were closed and it got a little bit more silent.
"The Demeter Familia has fields next to the city, mostly potatoes. They asked for help to secure the plants...but..."
"But?"
"They can´t pay much...they offer mostly vegetables since they don´t have so much money...so...no one wants to g-"
"I´ll go!"
He looked determined at Eina.
"Bell, thank you so much, here take this."
She gave him a small sigil with the guild's insignia, without it they wouldn´t open the gate he needed to pass. Bell wasn´t that interested in the payment, but when he heard what plants the Demeter Familia was growing in the fields he couldn´t help it.
Ais had told him that the potatoes for Jaggarmaru-kun came from the Demeter Familia and that they were growing special potatoes with the water they had fetched from the dungeon. Ais had looked forward to eating these potatoes so Bell would do everything to protect them.
Ais, I will protect your snacks!
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"Welf! Hold it steady!"
"I´m trying! It is not as easy as it looks like!"
Welf, Tsubaki, and Hephaistos had to yell when they wanted to talk to each other, it was extremely loud inside the forge. At first, the ore chunk had heated up in the special oven...then it started to leak out thunder elemental energy. The biggest part just went up the chimney and out in the air around Babel,
but Welf had to hold up some kind of shield to prevent them from getting hit. Tsubaki had taken off most of her clothes to prevent them from burning, she only wore her usual red pants and the bandages around her chest, her job was it to let the slag out. They were all experienced in this work...but not with this metal.
Instead of red, the oven gleaned in a deep actinic blue...it was beautiful.
Hephaistos was busy arranging the special hammers they would use when they would have prepared the ore enough. They would separate it from all impurities before forging it into ingots. They thought about melting it, but even Hephaistos´ forge didn´t get hot enough to let this metal melt...and it would be too dangerous, because of the elemental energy in it.
None of the three noticed what their work unleashed over Orario.
.
.
I should have brought a jacket with me from home...
Bell was running through the rain on his way to the fields of the Demeter Familia, it should be around noon but it was almost as dark as in the late evening. Rain pattered down on Bell and it was hard to hear something in that wind, what made it more scary was the clear cut a few kilometers away where the clouds suddenly stopped.
A bit ahead of him he saw a light that seemed to be a big lantern and some smaller light dots. He followed the path to the main house of the Demeter Familia in the fields, their home was in the northern part of Orario.
"You two secure the fields over there!"
The goddess Demeter stood at the entrance of the house and held a long lantern in her right hand, with the left she showed her children the direction where they had to go. Bell heard that the Demeter Familia was actually even bigger than the Ganesha Familia, but that they had lost many people in the recent events, even when the Familia only contained of noncombatants.
"Lady De-"
Bell was interrupted by a loud thunderclap.
When he came closer, the goddess turned around to him, she wore a long raincoat and had the hood turned up.
"Lady Demeter! The guild told me about the emergency Quest!"
"You are Hestia´s boy, right? Thank you for coming! Only a few people came to help!"
He understood, that even if the food was important, many adventurers didn´t want to help if there wasn´t much or nearly no payment.
"What shall I do?!"
"We need to cover the fields with tarpaulins or this storm will destroy our whole harvest!"
Normally the Familia would have done that by themself but the storm was just too sudden.
"Each tarpaulin is fastened with pegs to hold it in place in this wind!"
"Understood!"
"Wait, young man!"
Demeter turned around and took something from inside the house through the opened door, it was a raincoat.
"Use this and follow Persephone!" She pointed at a young woman of her Familia, her alias was "Persephone".
"Thank you and understood!"
Bell followed the young woman and helped where she told him to, usually it wouldn´t be a problem to move the tarpaulins, but doing that in the storm was another thing. There was an enormous difference between Bell and the Demeter Familia members,
he had the strength to hold down the tarpaulin while Persephone hammered in the peg, each of those was half a meter long. They worked in teams of four people, one held the pegs, one hammered and the last two held down the tarpaulin, only Bell´s team and those with other adventurers needed three.
He couldn´t see the other adventurers that came to help due to the storm and darkness, Bell didn´t know how many helped. They made good progress since the Familia was used to their work and soon over half of the fields were covered, apparently, there were teams that worked from the outside inwards so they would meet in the middle.
The work was exhausting, he was used to fighting but doing this work in the rain, his hands started to get numb.
"Watch out!"
Persephone looked up when someone yelled, a dark scheme moved in the darkness, and a tarpaulin had become loose.
"Someone shall fix this!"
"We don´t have enough people!"
They were nearly finished with their tarpaulin.
"Ms. Persephone, I will go and hold it down until you can fix it!"
"Okay, go!"
Mud splashed through the area as he ran to the detaching tarpaulin, wind and rain lashed his face ... it was a very uncomfortable situation. He was relieved when he saw that a second person was running towards the tarpaulin on the other side since it was loosening on both sides.
"I take this side! Take the other one!"
"Okay!"
He couldn't make out the figure because of the heavy raincoat. Bell had no other choice even if he got dirty and wet, he jumped to his knees to hold the tarpaulin on the ground, and the other figure did the same.
Bell turned his face downwards to keep him safe from the rain and groaned. His hood lashed into his face due to the rain and he felt that his pants and boots got soaked, not even the raincoat helped by that downpour.
He felt that his hands were getting numb from the cold and rain, also from gripping the tarpaulin on the edge, but he gritted his teeth and continued.
"Kya!"
When he heard a noise, Bell raised his head and looked at the other figure. He saw blonde hair waving in the wind, a sudden gust of wind had pulled off the hood of the other figure.
"Ais?!"
The blond girl that crouched on the other side was all too familiar to him.
She raised her head. "Bell?!"
"What are you doing here?!"
"I´m helping!"
"That´s obvious, are more with you?!"
"Only I am! I have to...I will protect this field!"
She nodded to a sign next to Bell that he hadn´t paid attention to until now. Something about special potatoes was written on it.
"Are these the potatoes they used the water on?!"
"Yes!" It was rare to see Ais this energetic.
Now Bell had even more reason to protect this special field from the storm, these potatoes were supposed to become Jaggarmaru-kun in the future.
I will protect your happiness, Ais!
Instead of talking further, Ais turned her face downward to escape the heavy rain as much as possible.
The time went by and they could just kneel there and hold it down, no help came since the others were too busy to protect the fields or fix other tarpaulins that were pulled up.
It had started around noon and even if their bodies were screaming from muscle pain and wet cold...Bell and Ais kept kneeling there for hours. If they weren´t tough adventurers, they couldn´t do what they did.
When help finally came, they knelt there for four hours already, the only movement they did was slightly shifting from one knee to the other.
Even with all the cold water on their bodies, both were exhausted and tired. All in all, they helped for seven hours at the fields, not all fields could be saved and some were damaged, but they prevented the worst case.
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.
.
Drip...Drip...Drip...
The dripping of the last rain and footsteps in the mud were all they could hear. After the loud thunderclaps, the silence that followed when the storm calmed down was even more deafening, somehow.
It was still dark outside, the clouds were slowly getting thinner but evening was approaching. Bell and Ais knelt side by side at the edge of a field and secured the tarpaulin until the storm had ended.
He saw her swaying a bit, she had to be very tired, a small sun ray fell on them from the side, it let the wet surroundings sparkle like diamonds.
"Ais?"
She slowly lifted her head and smiled lightly. "Bell."
Ais looked around and blinked tiredly, in this light she was even more beautiful in Bell´s eyes.
Where am I...why am I here...
She blinked again, she was so tired, Ais didn´t know why but she knelt in the mud next to a field, with Bell at her side, and her eyes wandered to him.
Bell gulped heavily, it would be the perfect moment...
Ais looked into Bell´s face and smiled lightly again.
Ah...this has to be...a dream...that´s why...I feel..so tired...
Slowly blinking, she shook her head, her golden mane waved around her head even if it was wet like this...she looked like an angel to Bell. Ais had often dreamed about doing different things
together with Bell since their return from the dungeon, like traveling or training...but never fieldwork.
"Ais?"
"Ehehe...Bell.."
She smiled again at him, Ais liked her dreams.
Bell´s heart pounded faster and faster, even if he was tired and exhausted, wet from the storm, and felt cold...his cheeks got hot when he looked at Ais...he wanted to...no he would tell her!
"Ais, I-Mf!"
Bell took all of his courage together and...was interrupted when Ais suddenly kissed him.
Eh, Eh, Eh, Eeeeeeeeh! What is happening?! Is this happening?! WHAT, HOW, WHY?!
His eyes widened more and more in perplexity and shock as he felt Ais´ soft lips on his own, his brain had a malfunction and couldn´t keep up with the situation.
Slowly, Ais separated her lips from Bell and smiled again. "Ehe...even if this is a dream...it feels nice, right Bell?"
"Eh, Ais?"
"Hm?" She tilted her head lightly and smiled cutely.
"A dream?"
"Yes, I dream of you and me again...like every night for the last weeks." She said it as if it was obvious.
She thinks...she is dreaming?
Ais leaned her head onto Bell´s shoulder and smiled up to him...with love-filled eyes.
"Ha...if only I could do this...outside of...my dreams..."
"Ahm...Ais?..."
"Hm?"
"This...isn´t...a dream."
"What are you saying? Of course, it is a dream."
"No...it isn´t."
She blinked repeatedly and looked around, her head still on Bell´s shoulder. Ais felt the cold and wetness on her body...normally dreams felt more pleasant.
"Not...a...dream?"
"No..." Bell looked at her.
"I am...not sleeping?"
"No..."
She blinked faster and faster. "I am...awake?"
"Yes."
"And you...are here?"
"Yes..."
"..."
"Ais?"
"..."
"A..is?..."
"..."
Poof!
Suddenly her face got the deepest red color that Bell had ever seen on someone, her mouth opened and her expression was pure shock. Bell felt that her body trembled, and her hands twitched.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEP!"
Ais cried out and pulled herself back from Bell, landing on her butt and staring at him in deep shock.
"Ais?!"
Her mouth opened and closed repeatedly, her eyes had problems staying still. Her mind understood what she had done just now...Ais had kissed the real Bell...
"Don´t look at me, please!"
Instead of covering her face with her hands, Ais tried to hide behind her golden hair...it looked too adorable for Bell.
"Ais, please calm down."
She just sat there and shook her head...at least it looked like it since he could only see her hair shaking.
Gently, Bell knelt forward and slightly tapped against Ais´ hand...after a few moments the hair parted a bit and he could see her golden eyes...she looked extremely embarrassed and panicked.
"Ais?" He smiled gently.
Slowly...very slowly...Ais let go of her hair, it parted enough that he could see her face more, still very red.
"Bell..." Her voice was almost too low to be heard.
"Ais ahm...what...did..."
"Please don´t ask!" She squealed more than she spoke.
Come on Bell, dare it.
He took a deep breath and looked at her.
"Ais."
"Mh?..."
"Ais...I love you."
She blinked again many times...not knowing what she should do. "Eh?..."
"I love you, Ais...I really do...and this is not a dream."
It took a few moments before she started to mumble. "u too.."
"Ais?"
"I...love you...too..." She glanced at him, shyly.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Bell´s heart wanted to explode out of joy, he had said it! And Ais said it too!
A pure smile bloomed on his face when he looked at her, slowly starting to chuckle.
"Bell?..."
In a movement of pure joy, Bell took the hands of the squeaking Ais in his own. "Ais, I love you!" He beamed all over his face.
Eventually, she got the situation...what she had thought, what she had done...and what followed after it.
An innocent smile came to her lips. "Bell...I love you."
They knelt there in the muddy fields around Orario, both cold and drenched from the rain...and so incredibly happy.
"Ais.." Bell leaned a bit closer.
"Bell..." Her heart pounded very fast.
Not a dream...this is... real.
Both of their hearts jumped in joy as they closed the distance and kissed for the first time really. It felt way better than in both of their dreams...because this was true.
Ais Wallenstein and Bell Cranel had confessed their love for each other...and kissed lovingly while looking like a mess.
Both were...
Happy.
