Work Text:
Ui looks beautiful bathed in the light of the setting sun as Asuna lets her students go for the day. It makes her happy to see, Ui here. She’d shared her home with Asuna, and now Asuna can do the same, under happier circumstances.
“I’m glad I could come over today,” Ui says, when Asuna walks back up to join her. “You have some really nice kids. They’re all somewhere between 100 and Oto’s age, right?”
Asuna nods.
“That doesn’t seem to weird you out like it used to,” she says. Ui shrugs.
“I figured the 123 year old looks twelve and the 200 year olds look 20, so it’s not the strangest thing,” she says. “Plus, it would make for a great story. And at the moment makes the two of us the same age.”
Asuna laughs.
“Good point,” she says. “I’m 201, after all.”
“And I’m 20 next week,” Ui replies, smiling. “And glad to be home with all of you.”
Asuna is sure her smile is just as wide.
“I’m glad you’re home, too,” she says. She looks out, her turn to watch the sun set on a world safe, at the very least, of one more threat, of a fight she had thought would be the fight of her entire life.
It had instead been the fight of only a few years. And in some ways, Asuna still isn’t sure how to deal with that. But it’s enough to pass on the lessons outside of an endless war to these children. The lessons her Master had taught her and the secrets she had been forced to confront.
She loves her students a lot, regardless.
She loves having made her team a home, regardless. Her friends. And also…
“The view from here is amazing,” Ui says. “The whole world looks golden. How’d you even get this place, anyways?”
“Elder gave it to me,” Asuna replies simply. “It belonged to our Masters, actually. They never lived here while I was training with Master Pink, but… It’s a good place to train twenty some kids. And for making sure everyone has a place to come home to.”
“…oh,” Ui says. “That’s pretty cool, actually. I’m glad things are going so well for you.”
Asuna laughs.
“Hey, don’t sell yourself short, miss celebrity,” she says. “It went well in America, right?”
Ui laughs.
“Of course it did,” she says. “I was kinda scared things would go wrong, but it all went really well.”
Asuna laughs in return.
“We all believed in you,” she says. Ui’s face instantly falls.
“I’m… I’m glad,” she says, turning away from Asuna back towards where the sun is nearly gone behind the horizon.
“Hey, Asuna?” Ui asks. “I was thinking about something.”
“Yeah?” Asuna asks. She can’t help the worry in her voice. She knows something is wrong with Ui, after all. The worry ruins the beauty of Ui’s sunset silhouette.
“Why are we friends?”
Asuna blinks. What?
She echoes the thought out loud, and Ui turns.
“You’re a superhero who will outlive me,” she says. “I have opportunities all over the world, now. Why are we friends?”
“Because I care about you, obviously,” Asuna says.
“I don’t know if that’s enough,” Ui replies. She wraps her arms around herself. “I… I’m gonna be old and grey and you won’t even look thirty.”
Asuna can’t help but reach out to her.
“Ui…” she says. “I want you with me. I… I really care about you.”
Ui turns to her and there are tears in her eyes.
“I know,” she says. “I just… you have a home now and it isn’t my spare room.”
“And you think I don’t want you in it?” Asuna asks. Ui blinks.
“I…”
And Asuna doesn’t think, She just does.
And she pulls Ui into a kiss, as the other girl starts crying for real. As she pulls away, she says “there’s room for you here, and I’ll always be happy to have you. I’m sorry you didn’t realize—”
“You kissed me,” Ui says. “You… kissed me.”
Asuna laughs.
“I did.”
“I liked it.”
“So did I. Are you done done worrying?”
Ui laughs, in return. A confused sound.
“Yeah,” she says. “I guess I kind of was being ridiculous.”
Asuna shrugs.
“I’m just glad to be here with you,” she says.
Ui smiles.
“Me too.”