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Niki looks up into the darkness of the night sky, watching the constellations gather on it, and takes a deep breath of the cool air, refreshing after a hot summer day spent in the sun.
She leans her shoulder against L’mantree, listening to the rustle of the green tree's leaves, the shouts of joy and the echoes of words that come to her in snatches, and her heart flutters as the wind plays with the loose strands of her hair.
The war is over.
They won.
The war had left these lands, where L'manberg's resounding victory had echoed like thunder, but it still felt under the skin, circulating with the blood.
The celebration seems unusual to Niki. The noise that seemed to come from everywhere at once was no longer a signal to prepare for an attack. The shouts of despair were replaced by laughter, and L'manberg, the beacon of hope for all, now glittered with the lights of lanterns launched into the sky in honor of the victory after the fireworks had died down.
Niki smiled softly. Such a life - calm, without wars, blood on hands and uniform, with a sword ready to be drawn at any moment, with honed movements that strike to defeat - will still need to get used to, she thinks. But Niki doesn't mind.
She wants to quickly forget about the horrors of war, although she realizes that it will probably never completely leave her. The resulting scars will always remain somewhere in there, inside Niki. Not on the skin, but in carved letters on the subcortex of the brain.
"Niki."
When someone else's hands are on her shoulders and a voice snaps her out of her thoughts, Niki's first instinct is to grab her sword, to protect herself in any way possible. But a shudder strikes her like lightning, and she is lost, straining her whole body.
"You should get some rest, Treasury of State," the voice in her ear says, sounding both amused and concerned. Hands gently stroke her shoulders, and she relaxes.
"Wil," Niki breathes wearily, and slaps him lightly on the arm. "Don't sneak up on me like that again!"
The president of L'manberg playfully pulls back his hand and pretends to be in a lot of pain, and Niki's lips break into a gentle smile again as Wilbur stands next to her.
His presence was soothing. With him, Niki knew that whatever happened, everything would be fine in the end. He will never let anything bad happen to me or anyone else, Nihachu thinks, when the president's eyes meet hers and they shine with pride brighter than a thousand stars in the sky.
"It's over," Wilbur says on a breath, and Niki can't help but notice not only the joy of victory written on his face, but also the flash of fatigue that he tried so hard to hide from other people's eyes. "I can't believe we did this, Niki. Independence is now ours."
"We deserve it more than anyone, everyone fought well," Wil nods, but the corners of his mouth, raised in a smile, turn down.
"But how much have we lost..." he says sadly, looking around at the walls that protect them.
"None of the sacrifices were in vain," Niki adds, placing a supportive hand on the president's shoulder.
They stood there in silence for several minutes, watching the moon's disk in the middle of the sky. The wind played with their hair and made the leaves rustle.
At some point, the music grew louder and Wil cheered up. He looked at Niki and smiled softly.
"Look at you, all sad now. Come on, Niki, clear your head! We won! Relax!"
Niki needed a few seconds to recover. Wil put his hand over hers and walked around her until he was in front of her eyes. In his uniform, with a smile on his face and a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, Wilbur gave her a sense of security and home.
Niki thought that all L’manberg, his creation, in fact continued to live in himself.
On the periphery of her mind, the music became clearer and louder. The melody was simple and cheerful. Niki thought she could hear Tommy shouting something loudly, followed by Tubbo's voice telling his friend to be careful.
"Dance with me, Niki!" Wil said, and moved closer to her, offering his other hand, clearly already making up his mind for both of them. "Have fun!"
In his eyes, Niki sees the radiance of a thousand stars and boundless devotion; to himself, to his nation, to his friends.
To Niki herself.
And she'd be lying if she said she didn't have the same loyalty in her heart.
To their freedom.
To their L’manberg.
To their President.
She puts her hand in his and Wil pulls her into a simple dance. Niki laughs as he circles her, and Wilbur does too. They hum to themselves a rhythm and some memorized words to the slowly fading melody.
When the noise subsided and the world fell silent, Wil and Niki were still waltzing by the L'mantree to their own rhythm, which only they could understand.