Lumine's Lovestory (🍋)

Chapter 5: Robots and Feelings

Lyney/Xiao/Tartaglia

A shrill whistling tea kettle sounded in her ears, drowning out the sweet sounds of the birds outside the window. Annoyed, she pulled the soft and rustling blanket over her head and frowned. Her head was buzzing and she felt...sore.
The whistling stopped, but there was no point in going back to sleep. With sluggish and bare feet, Lumine struggled out of bed as memories from last night flooded back into her head.
Half asleep, she ran the shower and sighed as the cool water flowed over her face, down her neck and down her back until it calmed her mind.

When she got out of the shower and wrapped the white towel around her wet body, it only covered the most important areas. The large bathroom mirror gave her a view of her well-shaped, curvy, but still delicate body. She looked at her rosy and soft skin, which made her numerous battle scars look not like marks, but like beauties. She had never looked at herself like that before, and she had always cared nothing about what she looked like, but in that moment...she felt so incredibly pretty.

Since she still had her dress at Navia's house and only had the borrowed gold dress here, she slipped a white shirt from Lyney over her head and went into the kitchen, where Lyney had already prepared breakfast and was now chewing and reading a newspaper.
Lumine grabbed a baguette and dipped it in a jam-like sauce.

"I hope you slept well?"
Lyney asked without looking up from the newspaper.

"mhm.. not really."

The conversation remained silent and Lumine watched Lyney as he read the newspaper, going through an article with great concentration, his eyebrows twitching regularly. Finally he dropped the paper on the table next to him.

"Lumine, I would like to ask you to stay close to the city in the near future and not to undertake any risky expeditions in the wilderness. There are currently several missing people reported and one fatality has already been found who has similarities to the other missing people. "

Suddenly it felt like the pastry was stuck in her throat and images of the sunken house she had barely made it out of alive flashed before her eyes.
She wanted to go looking for this monster again to confront him and wasn't Xiao also looking for something here? Maybe all of these things were somehow connected...Xiao...

"I'll take it to heart, but I can't promise anything."
Lyney gave her a skeptical look and shook his head slightly.

"As long as you know what you're doing..."
Lyney looked at her with a thoughtful look, so Lumine just finished her breakfast in silence.

Finally the girl got ready and put the gold dress back on to visit Navia. It was almost too beautiful to give away.
As she put on her fancy shoes to leave, she wanted to say goodbye to Lyney. But she noticed that Lyney was looking at her far too deeply, almost longingly.

A tingling sensation ran down her spine. She was used to Lyney's romantic look, but this look seemed...just real. Her mouth went dry, they had actually agreed that last night had been a one-time thing, but she hadn't expected that feelings could arise from it. A slight panic rose in her because she hadn't expected to be confronted with something like that. With this pressure, she ran out of the apartment before she could think about it any more.

☆

With her dress glittering in the sun and her clacking shoes, she attracted more attention than she would have liked and the looks of those passing by burned into her back. She was particularly disgusted by the greedy looks from some people, as if she were a whore.

Standing in Navia's room, she slipped into her usual dress with relief and was ashamed to find that Navia had washed her clothes. Since she was always traveling, she didn't really care what she smelled like and only washed herself when she had the chance. But now that she was living with Lyney, she had discovered her love for scents and was paying more attention to her hygiene. Maybe she should buy some perfume on the way back?