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Sometimes Espella regrets leaving Labyrinthia and her old (if fake) life behind. After all, she lived in the town for ten entire years of her life, and it feels like there is a huge hole in her life now Labyrinthia has been shown to be a huge lie and therefore ten years of her eighteen years on the Earth have been a lie too. Part of her hates the place, and she was happy to leave when the truth was revealed and everyone has happy for her to go.
But… but another part of her doesn’t hate the town in the slightest. Espella knows how a large amount of the townspeople are happily staying in Labryinthia, used to the lives they lived for those ten years and not wanting to go back into the real world. And, for a while, she was one of them. She didn’t want to leave.
But then she thought about the outside world she barely remembered, and how Labyrinthia is tied completely to the terrifying memories that began to return to her about her life and the trauma she went through that caused her breakdown and led to her desperate father creating the entire Labyrinthia in the first place. And all of that causes her such distress to think about, so she just wants to leave the town for good.
Father doesn’t mind when Espella tells him about wanting to leave, accepting that his daughter is eighteen and should finally be able to live a real life. Espella is so grateful, hugging her father and promising to visit him as often as he wants.
And so she leaves the town and heads off to London. She likes London; it is the home of Professor Layton, one of the men who solved the mystery of Labrynthia and saved her life many times. And it makes the move a bit less daunting to know someone like Professor Layton lives not too far away.
She likes living in London, but she does get lonely sometimes. The memories of her past still haunt her, flashes of witch trials and fires and terror hitting her when she sleeps. Espella regularly attends therapy with the therapist Father organised for her, and she thinks the therapy is helping her move on from the past. At least, she hopes it is.
So it is clear that Espella doesn’t regret leaving the town. But… the loneliness really gets to her sometimes. And she likes her choice to move away from Labryinthia, but she wishes she could have brought the friends she made there with her. She doesn’t want to be alone.
---
One evening, Espella is sat on the sofa in her apartment, watching the television (and still getting a bit confused at how all of the modern technology works after her time in a town with no electricity), when there is a knock on the door. Confused, Espella goes to the door and looks through the spy-hole. The image of the person is distorted, but she still knows who it is.
And her heart starts to race as she opens the door and says, “Eve?”
Eve Belduke is stood on the doorstep, a rucksack on her back and a gift bag in her hand. She smiles, but looks faintly embarrassed.
“Hello, Espella,” she says.
“But… what are you doing here? How do you even know where I live?”
“Well, I’m here because I wanted to come and visit you,” Eve says slowly, answering both of her questions in turn. “And I know where you live because a certain Master Triton told me when I visited him and Professor Layton in search of where you live. I hope I haven’t startled you.”
“No, not really,” Espella says. “I’m just rather… surprised. I never expected anyone to come and visit me.”
Eve smiles. “Well, I have. Can I come in?”
“Of course, of course,” she says, stepping to the side to let Eve into her apartment.
Eve follows Espella through the hallway, looking at the wall paper and ornaments and knick-knacks everywhere.
“This place is very impressive,” Eve says.
“Thank you,” Espella says, smiling. “Father bought it for me.”
She doesn’t say it, but she and Eve know that her father is one of the richest people in the country (and Eve’s father was before his untimely death). So of course her father could afford to buy her a large apartment in London.
She leads Eve into the living room, and Eve smiles when she sees the television.
“It sees so strange, doesn’t it?” she says, almost talking to herself rather than Espella. “To see these things from over ten years ago and realise that you remember them. To realise what… you missed.”
She sighs. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to come here to depress you.” Eve smiles, trying to hide an awkward expression, and holds out the gift bag. “Here, I got you something.”
“Thank you,” Espella takes the bag and finds herself looking at a box of chocolates and a bottle of wine.
“It isn’t much, but I didn’t want to come here with nothing.”
“No, it’s nice. I quite like wine, as it happens,” Espella says, remember the times she drank wine at the bakery when she was probably too young to buy it in the real world. It was always rather nice, and made her feel pleasantly groggy when a bit drunk. “Thank you, Eve.”
Espella looks at her friend and holds up the bottle of wine. “Um, Eve… would you like to have a glass of wine.”
Eve smiles. “I would love to.”
---
A couple of hours later, Espella is pleasantly drunk; the world seems fuzzy and distorted, but she doesn’t feel ill. She probably doesn’t have a very good tolerance to alcohol, if such a thing exists. Eve has drunk a bit more than her, but seems to be in roughly the same state. And they are both the sort of people who find everything funny when drunk, which explains why they laugh hysterically when watching an awful situation comedy on the television which Espella normally can’t stand.
Laughing at another awful joke on the television programme, Espella has another sip of her wine and looks at Eve. As she laughs at the TV, her face flushed from the alcohol and laughing so much, Espella realises just how beautiful Eve is. Of course, she has always know that Eve is pretty, but she never realised that she is actually extremely beautiful.
And then she thinks of something: is it normal to consider another woman beautiful? Because Espella remembers being very young and looking at her best friend and thinking that Eve was a very pretty girl, but that was normal, wasn’t it? But to look at Eve now and consider her totally beautiful… does that make her gay?
After all, Espella has never fallen for a man, and she always thought that her girl friends were very pretty, and, of course, Eve saved her life and cares about her deeply, and she considers Eve extremely beautiful… is she in love with Eve? And if she is, is she a lesbian?
“Espella?” Eve says.
Espella jumps, realising that she was deep in thought. She looks at Eve, who is staring at her.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine,” Espella says. “I was just thinking.”
Eve sips her wine. “What were you thinking about?”
Espella’s face heats up and she realises that she is blushing. “N-Nothing, really.”
Eve leans a bit closer. Her eyes are sparkling. “Are you sure?”
“Well, actually… I was thinking about you.”
“About me?”
“Yeah,” Espella whispers, so embarrassed she thinks even her ears have gone red. “I was thinking about how b-beautiful you are.”
Eve stares at her. Her face flushes. Her eyes sparkle even brighter. The red wine is staining her lips dark red.
“Really?” she says, her voice so soft. “You think I’m beautiful?”
“Of course I do,” she says, leaning closer to Eve. “You are. I’ve always thought you were beautiful. You are beautiful.”
Eve smiles. “Espella… thank you. But, you do know… you must know that you are beautiful too.”
Espella smiles, nearly spilling wine down her skirt. “Oops!”
“Careful,” Eve says, holding her hand to stabilise her glass.
Espella stares at her. Their faces are so close together.
She wants to say it. She knows she would be far too anxious to say it when sober, but being a bit drunk can have its advantages. So, with little anxiety, she suddenly blurts it out.
“I love you.”
And then she groans, screwing her eyes up in embarrassment.
“What?” Eve says. “Espella?” She hears Eve put down her glass, and then she puts her hands on Espella’s shoulders. “Espella?”
Reluctantly, Espella opens her eyes. Eve is right in front of her, her eyes staring into her own. She really is beautiful.
“You love me?” Eve says.
Espella nods. “Yeah, I do.”
Eve studies her for a few seconds. Espella holds her breath, waiting for her answer.
And then Eve smiles. “Well that’s very good news. Because I love you too.”
Relief hits Espella hard and she starts laughing. “That’s amazing!”
Eve hugs her. “I know. I know.”
“Eve? Can… Can I kiss you?”
Eve swallows. “Yes, of course you can.”
And, slowly, carefully, Espella leans forwards and kisses Eve. Her lips taste of wine and she smells of her favourite perfume. It is a soft kiss, and she pulls away after only a couple of seconds.
And Eve smiles, looking so happy. And as Espella smiles too, she kisses Eve again.