The journey beyond the Curtain Call

Chapter 3

Furina was in the general store, shopping to restock her pantry.

"Hm... should I buy Macaroni, or penne, or maybe long macaroni..." she muttered to herself, looking through the options.

"How about something other than pasta for once?" said a voice close to her ears making her yelp.

"AAH!" she shrieked in surprise, making Aether giggle.

"YOU STUPID IDIOT!" she yelled, lightly punching him in the chest with a pout. What she didn't realize was how stronger she had grown while training with Arlecchino and Clorinde, and as a result, Aether doubled over, groaning in pain. And still laughing.

"Are you okay? I'm sorry!" she said worriedly as Aether straightened up, a grin still on his face, before sighing and chuckling again.

"Yeah, I'm fine. but you hit really hard, Mademoiselle," he said, as Furina pouted again.

"Well, that's what you get for sneaking up on me!"

"Sorry, couldn't resist. Was worth it," he said, giggling again, before they noticed everyone was staring at them. They all had a smile, as a girl asked her mother what the couple were doing.

"Oh, nothing, sweetie. They were flirting. You'll figure it out when you grow up," she said, looking at them with a knowing smirk before walking away.

This caused them both to blush as they hurriedly picked a few items and left the aisle.

"That was embarrassing," she muttered making Aether chuckle again.

"But seriously, you should eat something that isn't pasta once in a while," he said looking at her.

"YOU SAID SO ABOUT MACARONI TOO! I am now eating other types of pasta too, what more do you want from this poor girl!" she said melodramatically making Aether laugh, before joining in herself.

"Well, this won't do. I'm cooking for you today," he said, before picking a bunch of things and moving to the billing counter.

"H-huh? HEY, let me at least pay!"

"Nuh-uh," he said pulling out his wallet as the cashier calculated his total bill.

"What do you mean nuh-uh?" Furina said confused making him turn to her and put his finger on her lips.

"You said you'd let me pay next time, so I'm paying. Now shush," he said with a smirk, making Furina blush.

'T-this cocky twerp!' she thought, before biting his finger making him wince.

"Kinky," he said through the pain, making her punch him again.

'This is the most I've seen traveller talk, and by far! Stop making me feel single Traveler,' the cashier thought, crying sad single tears.

After the shopping shenanigans, they were on their way to Furina's house, when she realised something.

"Wait, where's Paimon?" she asked.

"Oh, her, she's with Navia. They had something fun planned apparently," he said, blushing while remembering what she said.

He had already planned to spend the day with Furina, and to that, Paimon's reply was 'Oh cool, go ahead and rock her day Traveler, Paimon won't come in between your date.'

A few hundred meters away, Navia and Paimon were watching them with a pair of Binoculars. They both had fake moustaches as a Spina executive was sitting next to them with a machine that was letting them listen to their conversation.

"Ooh, this is so worth it," said Paimon with a grin and Navia nodded.

"Partner's game is unmatched across Tevyat."