"Yangyang, we're back!" they called in unison.
"Oh, welcome home! Rovers."
Inside her small house, Yangyang had been preparing dinner when the knock came. Her eyes lit up and she hurried to untie her apron, rushing to open the door.
The sight that greeted her made those dark, luminous eyes widen a fraction. Nothing alarming, really. Two people who'd spent an entire day hunting in the wilds were bound to look a little rough around the edges.
Their black hair stuck up at odd angles from a day of fighting and soaring through the sky. Grass clung to their dark combat suits alongside flecks of ice and scorch marks left by lightning. Dust and shallow scrapes marked both their faces, one handsome and one beautiful, and Yangyang found herself wondering what kind of adventure could have done all this.
Beyond that, though, she thought they looked... kind of adorable.
They're like cats. They're exactly like cats.
Two black cats who'd spent the whole day romping outside and come home covered in the evidence. In Yangyang's mind's eye, a pair of cat ears sprouted from each of their heads, tails swishing behind them.
Her gaze softened further.
She felt like a cat owner watching her pets wander home.
"Uh, Yangyang, what's with the..."
"Why do you look like you want to adopt us?"
"Huh? Oh, I... do I?"
They nodded in perfect sync, as usual, and a flush crept up her neck. She spun around, pressing both palms against her cheeks and rubbing vigorously. The flustered innocence of it was almost painfully endearing.
Both Rovers smiled. She was a girl in the full bloom of youth, yet something about her gentleness and quiet warmth, the effortless way she looked after people, gave Yangyang the unmistakable air of a devoted wife.
The kind of girl who made you want to marry her on the spot.
Whatever lingering frustration the Bell-Borne Geochelone had left them with melted away, swept clean by this girl's gentle breeze.
"Ahem! So, how did today's hunt go?"
"The haul? Eh, about average..."
"Started well enough. The ending didn't go our way, though."
The twin sighs that followed caught Yangyang off guard.
She'd only known them for two days, but both Rovers had already planted an impression in her heart of people who could do anything.
What could possibly make them sigh like that? Curiosity tugged at her, but comforting them came first. She opened her mouth to speak, but before the words left her lips...
"Captured four Overlord Class Echoes, brought the total Echo count past a hundred. Decent enough, I guess."
"It's that Calamity Class Bell-Borne Geochelone at the end that bugs me. We were so close. The more I think about it, the more it stings."
"...Huh?"
Yangyang's eyes went perfectly round.
What had these two just said so casually?
Four Overlord Class Echoes? A collection breaking triple digits?
And they'd fought a Calamity Class Tacet Discord?
And nearly won?!
Even for someone born into a family of musicians, blessed with perfect pitch and a Forte as refined as Breath of Winds, Yangyang had to wonder if her ears were deceiving her.
While she'd spent the day at home doing a deep clean, these two had been out living through all that?
The comforting words she'd prepared died somewhere in her throat.
After a beat of silence, she managed, rather lamely:
"Um, g-good work out there, Rovers. So would you like to eat first, or take a bath first, or..."
"Bath!!" they said without a heartbeat's hesitation. Between the battlefield, the forest, the ore caverns, and the frozen pools, they'd been dying to scrub themselves clean for hours.
Especially after the Geochelone fight.
A long, hot soak sounded like heaven.
"All right, I'll make a couple extra dishes as a reward. But... you two are not bathing together."
"Huh? Why not?" x2
"No means no."
The memory of them nearly destroying the bathroom last night was still fresh. Yangyang planted her hands on her hips, expression stern yet somehow still adorable, and held firm. The most important reason, of course, was that it was too much stimulation for her.
Faced with this rare display of iron will from Yangyang, the two Rovers could only nod in reluctant agreement.
This time, though, he wasn't letting her pull another stunt. Before she could call dibs, he'd already claimed the bathroom and shut the door. Her lip twitched. Another sigh. She accepted her fate.
Once they'd both finished...
"Let's get this settled before Yangyang calls us for dinner."
"Mm... go easy on me, Rover."
In their shared bedroom, he sat in the chair with his arms folded after drying her hair. She flinched at his tone, then sank to the floor on her knees without being told. Tension carved itself across her face.
Because she could see it clearly. Those golden eyes that had always watched her with trust and warmth were, for the first time, angry.
She knew the reason. Of course she did.
During the critical moment against the Bell-Borne Geochelone, she'd made the wrong call. Instead of facing the danger together with him, she'd shoved him out of harm's way and tried to bear everything alone.
A choice he would never accept.
"You know why, Rover. This is the first time I've been disappointed in you. The first time I've been angry. And I need it to be the last. In this world that neither of us has fully gotten used to yet, the only thing we truly have... is each other. So whatever happens, don't leave me behind again."
He leaned forward and pulled her tight against him.
In that moment, those striking golden eyes held none of the courage, composure, or defiance he showed against powerful enemies. Only the raw, shaking aftermath of fear, because it was only after living through that split-second margin that he understood how much the person in his arms meant to him.
This world was nothing like the peaceful one he'd left behind. Danger lurked everywhere, lethal and relentless, and two days had already brought more crises than anyone could reasonably process.
He felt the tension. The worry. The fear.
If he'd been alone, it would have consumed him.
But she made all of that disappear. Her Frequency, humming beside him every moment of every day, was a candle flame burning in the dark, steady and warm and impossibly comforting.
Enough to make him enjoy this world.
A pair of slender arms wrapped around him in return.
"I'm sorry, Rover. But it's the same for me."
Her apology was earnest, and so was the confession that followed. She felt it too. All of it. If anything, what she felt ran deeper.
Deep enough that in that moment of crisis, instinct had overridden thought, and she'd shoved him away without a flicker of hesitation.
=-=-=-=-=
Note: Powerstones!