After The Ending [Ayalumi]

The following day

The Princess was the first one to wake up in the morning by the bright sun hitting her face and the very first thing she saw, was Lumine right in front of her, sleeping peacefully on her side. For a split second she was shocked to see her there, but soon after she remembered the events of last night and smiled at the thought. After she pushed a blonde strand of hair that was covering her face out of the way, Ayaka carefully got out of bed trying to keep quiet so as to not wake up the alien in her bed. She then tiptoed to the bathroom to wash her face and get ready for the day. As the Shirasagi Himegimi, her schedule was rather hectic and there was nothing she wanted more than to just crawl back into the warmth of her bed and sleep in Lumine's arms.

When she finally finished her morning routine, the silver-haired lady walked back in her room to wake up Lumine. Like a statue, she still hadn't moved at all in her sleep; the only way to tell she was still alive was by the rising and falling of her chest as she breathed. Ayaka sat down on the mattress, causing it to sink from the weight slightly and nudged the blonde softly to wake her up. "Lumine, it's time to wake up."

There was no response from the former Traveller as she continued journeying through the land of dreams. Another nudge from the Princess and Lumine opened her golden eyes tiredly before bringing her hand to her face to rub the sleep out of them. "Good morning." She said in her morning voice to Ayaka.

"Good morning to you too." She replied, clearly in a happier mood than usual, she would be unable to hide her smile even if she tried.

"What time is it?" Lumine asked while sitting up and attempted to fix her bedhead to look more presentable in front of the one she loved.

"It's still early. Around 8 if I'm not mistaken." Having only taken a glance at a clock on her way to the bathroom, the Shirasagi Himegimi couldn't be too sure about the time. However, time was not the most important issue at that time. Soon enough, Thoma or maybe even Ayato would come looking for her and Ayaka and Lumine still had not decided neither the status of their relationship nor who would know about said relationship. So, the Princess opted to bring that topic up, despite the early hour and the fact that Lumine had just woken up, "Can we talk about us for a second?"

"Yea, of course." The blonde answered, slightly more awake than before by now.

"So, um... What are we exactly?" Ayaka asked, her nervousness being quite obvious to anyone by both her voice and red hue covering her cheeks. It was a rather uncommon spectacle to see her of all people so flustered and not knowing what to say.

"Do you want us to be girlfriends? We can just stay friends if you want, of course." Lumine suggested, hoping that Ayaka wouldn't choose the latter.

"I don't want to be just friends." The Princess responded earnestly, looking straight into the other's golden eyes as she inched a little closer to the blonde.

"I'm glad we agree on this." She stated, smiling, and placed one hand on Ayaka's cheek to bring her face closer, until their noses touched. 

"So, does this make us girlfriends, Lumine?" The silver-haired lady inquired, now holding onto Lumine's shoulder to keep her close to herself. The alien barely hummed in response, before she closed the gap between them, kissing Ayaka on the lips. How was every kiss better than the previous one, was something neither of them knew. Lumine couldn't explain it, it was such a unique feeling to her, one that she couldn't even begin to understand. She could already see herself getting addicted to it.

As Lumine held her face gently in her hands, she began getting a little self-conscious about the smell of her breath and brought their kiss to an end, before pecking her on the cheek and fixing her tousled blonde locks.

Then, something that startled them both happened; there was a knock on the door.

"Good morning, my lady! Are you awake?" The housekeeper, Thoma, asked from the other side of the door.

"Good morning, Thoma. I woke up some time ago." She said in response, while Lumine stayed silent.

"Good! Your brother wants to talk to you, so please go see him as soon as you can." He informed the Shirasagi Himegimi.

"Thank you, Thoma. I'll be there shortly."

"Alright, my lady." And with that, the two ladies could hear his footsteps as he left before it went silent again.

"I should get going now." Ayaka said to the blonde, wishing she didn't have to.

"Me too, Aether will probably be worried about me."

"When will we see each other again?"

The former Traveler replied that she would be in Inazuma City in the afternoon that day and luckily, the Princess also had business to take care of in the city. While they wouldn't be able to spend a lot of quality time together, they would at least see each other for a little.

Now that they had arranged their next meeting, Lumine teleported to the Serenitea Pot (not before giving one last kiss to her lover). After she left, Ayaka did too in order to meet up with her dear brother.

Apparently, Ayato only needed to speak to her about an event that would take place in the nation and they were naturally in charge of. The Shirasagi Himegimi didn't let him know about the new status of her relationship with Lumine, since they hadn't talked about who they would say this to. It's not that she was planning to keep her own brother in the dark forever, she just thought it would be better to discuss that with her lover first.

So, as soon as the conversation between the two siblings was over, she returned to her room to get ready to visit the city. She tried particularly hard to look as pretty as she could, which is something she would only do when the Traveller was in the picture. Before she realised it, the time had passed and it was time for her to go to Inazuma City. At moments like these, she envied her girlfriend. The ability to teleport wherever so easily would make her life so much easier. Not everyone can be that lucky, she thought as she was walking quietly along the path to the city.

Ayaka finished her bussiness earlier than she thought she would and began walking towards the spot they had arranged to meet up at. As she walked on the main road right past a small alley, a hand pulled her in the back street. The Shirasagi Himegimi was this close to summoning her sword when she realised who was in front of her and immediately stopped herself. "You scared me half to death." She said, still a little shocked.

"I'm sorry..." Said the the mysterious person, who just so happened to be Lumine. "I only wanted to surprise you a little."

"It's fine." Ayaka replied. Immediately after, the blonde threw her arms around her, hugging Ayaka tightly.

"I missed you." The former Traveller admitted, dragging out the 'you' a little as she buried her face in the silver-haired lady's neck.

"I missed you too."

Lumine, then, pressed a kiss on her lips. That is something neither of them would normally do in public, however, since there was nobody else there to see them, she thought there wouldn't be a problem. No matter how scared of being seen Ayaka was, she loved Lumine too much to not kiss back, so she pushed her fears aside for a little and enjoyed the moment. It wasn't the most romantic moment in their lives, there was little to no flair in kissing behind some crates in a small alley.

Their short, secret, kissing session ended quickly and after it they walked around the city aimlessly, talking and laughing like they always do. That was the very first date they had after getting together and far from the last.

This is technically the end of the story, however I will continue adding chapters. Those future chapters will basically be oneshots and have little to do with the plot, although they may have been teased a little already. From now on, updates won't be as frequent though, as I'll be focusing more on the other book I have published and some drafts. That is all, thank you so much for reading this and I hope that everyone liked it as much as I loved writing it. Have a wonderful day/night <3 <3