With and Without You (AetherxAyaka)

Chapter 10: Withering Sakuras

"Umph!"

Ayaka grunted as she made contact with the ground. She dropped down after running out of brick material to climb on. Upon landing on the ground she also managed to strike into a muddy puddle of water.

Great she thought.

She didn't mind getting dirty if she had to, but that doesn't mean she enjoys ruining her clothes either. Higher ups and other people would also question her status just by single spec of dirt. It was more so troublesome because it wouldn't be just her that they would call to question if she was seen wearing tattered or dirty attire.

Luckily, she shouldn't see many people considering that she is officially off duty for sometime. It also meant that if her intuition was correct, she could explore with the Traveler for a little while.

Now what drove him to come down this well was beyond her imagination, but she wasn't one to assume he did it for no reason.

The area below was noticeably cooler and moist. The air wasn't quite frigid, but enough make the skin feel cold. The place was dark, hardly any light made way down here. She turned to find a large intrusion near a torched wall. Cobbled rubble laid waste and the air smelled of crackled electricity.

Considering that one of the torches was lit and the other wasn't, along with the electric smell and rubble...

...someone used the torch fire and electric power to overcharge an explosion on the wall. Revealing a path that was once covered by debris. She began to follow that a path and it led to a drop off point. Abandoned wooden scaffolding laid all over. She leaned over the hole to get a better view of what laid underneath.

"BOO!"

"...!" Ayaka jumped in fear, almost falling; however a gentle hand grabbed her own. She turned around to face none other than the one who tried to scare her.

"How rude!" She chastised him. Forcing her hand out of his own and pouted, while looked the other way. Trying to ignore him in a protesting fit.

"Oh come on, it was funny!" He complained

"Not in the slightest! If I would have fell, what then?" She honestly wasn't mad at this point, but carried on anyhow.

She wasn't sure why she did so.

"Then I would have caught you" he stated simply.

"Paimon doesn't think it's that far of a drop anyways, he tested it earlier..."

Ayaka grunted in protest.

But she knew she couldn't keep the charade on forever. She wasn't mad at him, nor should she be. This was probably a custom that friends normally practice; of course she isn't used to said customs due to her lack of, well, friends...

Thinking about her nightmare made her give in and finally look at him; which proved to be well rewarding as he grinned from ear to ear.

His smile brought her comfort. It was warming and also proof that he was still alive and well, along with Inazuma's future.

He initially found it cute when she puffed her cheeks at his silly antics, but felt a similar comfort when his friend returned a smile back at him.

"What brings the princess down here? isn't it a little awkward to climb down wells?"

She for some reason came to the idea that it looked like she had tailed him here and it made her face tinted with a slight blush. Embarrasment as well.

"Well I uh... *ahem* was going for a walk and uh-" this wasn't going to work so she changed subjects. Even if she didn't follow him, she didn't think she could convince him else wise.