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Raiden Mei stepped out of the portal once she had finished the trials. It had already been several months since she had first stepped into the Elysian Realm. She had already learned everything she needed to learn from this place, but she still preferred spending her time here for a little longer. Doing trials was more a routine Mei had established for herself to train; however, today’s routine seemed to be missing something… To be more precise, it was missing someone.
Usually, Elysia would be the one to congratulate and praise her after she was done. Today, she hadn’t seen her at all. Mei wondered if Elysia was busy with something else. She had grown used to the elf’s affectionate behavior and found her relatively pure and adoring. The last time Elysia was gone like this was when the herrscher of corruption got her, so Mei couldn’t help but be worried.
She decided to take a break at the lounge to see if she could catch the elf anywhere but still no sign of her. It was her birthday today, too, so Mei had a stronger urge to celebrate it with her. She was growing restless even though she was trying to calm herself by reading a book on the previous era to kill time. Where could she be?
“Big sis! You seemed to be troubled with something!” Pardofelis popped out of nowhere along with her fat cat, Can. “I just restocked my store! Can you take a look-”
“Pardo? Yes, I do need your help. Can you help me find Elysia?” Mei knew the flamechaser could find anyone and gave her the small bag of coins left over from the trial earlier. “Would this be enough?”
“Woah!” Pardo’s eyes widened at how much money was inside the bag. “Of course, Mei! You are one of my top customers, after all!”
Mei followed Pardo’s leads to find Elysia. She cleared the path of any monsters that came their way, and they found themselves at the Elysium Everlasting. Befitting the name, it contained Elysia’s memories of what she liked about the Previous Era. Mei had come to understand her. Instead of remembering when the Previous Era was falling to ruins, Elysia held the memories of its beauty deep in her heart. That was who she was. Elysia had always seemed to find beauty in anything.
“There, she is!” Pardo said quietly and pointed at the elf staring into the distance of the sky. “I’ll leave the rest to you!”
“Thank you, Pardo.” Mei waved bye to Pardo, who had already quickly left.
Elysia looked in her direction once she noticed her. “Mei? Aww, I didn’t expect you to come and find me.” She smiled lightly. Her smile was beautiful as ever. Mei had spent long enough to tell something was bothering her.
“It’s your birthday. Of course, I’ll try to look for you, but what is wrong, Elysia?” Mei asked her.
“Hmm? Nothing!”
“Spill it. I could tell you are lying.” Mei pointed out.
“I am being honest!”
“Then why didn’t you wait for me after I was done with the trials?” Mei asked, even though she found it slightly embarrassing to say it out loud.
Of course, Elysia wouldn’t let this chance to tease her go. She chuckled, “Oh, Mei. You are so cute. I wouldn’t blame you for being upset; there wasn’t a cute girl to congratulate you!”
“E-Elysia, that is not what I meant!” Mei’s face turned slightly red at what she said. Elysia was a bit too good at dodging questions that it was infuriating.
“Then what do you mean?” The elf tilted her head to one side.
Mei was at a loss for words. “Ok, fine, I admit I do enjoy seeing… you after each trial because you are there every time… I start as well.” She confessed quietly.
“I can’t hear you!”
“Nevermind. I am not repeating it,” Mei shook her head.
Elysia laughed again, “I was just teasing you, Mei. Want to take a walk with me?”
“Sure,” Mei began to walk alongside her. “Back to my question at hand,” She wanted to know.
“Ok, fine, I can’t get myself out of this one. I just wanted some time to myself to think,” she admitted, “But usually when I am by myself, I tend to overthink.” They arrived at a garden full of flowers of several different colors.
“What were you thinking about, if you don’t mind if I ask?” Mei found the park to be beautiful.
Elysia bent down to touch the pink tulips, “I was born as a herrscher, so it is difficult for me to turn off my power. When I was old enough, I learned that my herrscher power could charm others to like me. So I am always worried if people love me simply because of my power and not for who I am.”
Mei could now understand why she would be worried. It was as if someone fell in love because of a potion instead of naturally loving that individual. “Trust me, Elysia. I have been here long enough to tell the flamechasers all love you. That’s why they all did so much to bring you back.” The thirteen flamechasers were like a big family.
“I know. It is upsetting how I question their love,” Elysia sighed sadly and stood back up. “It is just one of these days for me. That is why I wanted to keep to myself. I’ll be back to myself tomorrow!”
“It’s fine, Elysia. You helped me many times, so I want to return the favor and try to help you with this. Plus, you shouldn’t be so gloomy on your birthday.” Mei was glad Elysia trusted her enough to reveal her power like this. They were closer to each other than before.
“Help?” The elf asked as she seemed confused about how Mei would aid her.
“Yes, I am going to help you. You have taught me how to see the beauty in this world.” Mei wanted to see the world through Elysia’s eyes, but at most, she could only learn. “So, in return, I want you to learn why people love you from the bottom of their hearts.” She gently held Elysia’s hand and kissed it.
Elysia blushed from the kiss, “M-Mei, this is getting too much for me to handle.” She covered her red face out of embarrassment.
“Now you know how I feel when you flirt with me every single time,” Mei replied, but she was serious about what she said.
“I didn’t think you were a smooth talker!” Elysia was fanning her face with her free hand.
“What does that mean? I don’t stutter when I talk,” Mei always said what was on her mind.
“Y-you flirted back!” She pointed out.
“Yes, I did, but I am sincere about loving you. You are as important to me as Kiana.” If Kiana were the moon that lighted up her night, then Elysia would be the stars that guide her. Like stars, even after her death, she is still brilliant and lights up the way for future generations.
“You finally said her name to me!”
“I did because I can’t hide anything from you.” Even if Mei didn’t tell the elf anything, she could still figure out Mei had a special partner outside.
“You should tell me more about her!”
“Another time because right now, I want to focus on you. My point is that I love you as much as Kiana.” Mei confessed as she followed Elysia to a small hill of grass. “Plus, as a herrscher, I have resistance against mental attacks like that, or else the Herrscher of Corruption would have got me first.” She hoped she sounded convincing enough to Elysia.
The elf had a wider smile on her face, “Thank you! I was right! Cute girls are the sweetest!” She wrapped her arms around Mei to pull her into a kiss. Mei leaned closer as Elysia eventually pulled her down, which accidentally made Mei lose her balance.
“Elysia!” Mei hissed at the elf for making her fall as the two rolled down the hill together. They eventually fell to the foot of the hill. Mei was thankful the hill was all grass, so they had no injury.
“I am trying to be serious here, but here you are on top of me….” Mei grumbled while looking up at Elysia.
“Don’t be like that, Mei!” Elysia chuckled at the annoyed expression she had. “I am serious in everything I do.” She cupped her cheek and gave Mei another kiss.
“You are the most unserious person I have ever seen,” Mei joked after the kiss.
“I am serious!” Elysia insisted as she then laid down beside her. “But it is thanks to you that I feel better now!”
“Really?” Mei asked. “I hadn’t done much yet, though.”
“Sounds like you have a plan in mind?” Elysia was curious.
“I want to do something special for your birthday. Is that alright?” Mei asked and stood up. She didn’t want to take Elysia away the whole time when the flamechasers had planned something out.
“It should be okay! One of them would try to get me when it is time.”
Mei nodded, “Is there a kitchen around here?”
“Woah! I can take you there! Are you going to make me something?” Elysia wondered out loud as she took Mei to a bakery called ‘Kal’s Bakery.’
“Huh? Is this related to Kalpas by any chance?” Mei read out the bakery's name.
“Yep! He makes amazing cheesecakes, muffins, and donuts!”
Mei found that surprising, but she supposed she shouldn’t judge the book by its cover. “Here I was thinking about making you a dessert.”
“I am willing to eat anything you make, Mei!” Elysia was always curious about what her cooking was like.
“Alright, I’ll make you a strawberry cake that won’t lose to Kalpas,” Mei decided and looked inside the kitchen. It was clean and well-maintained, which was what she expected due to everything being a sim here.
“Can I help too?” Elysia offered. “It will be fun if we both work together on this!”
Mei would have turned her down because this was her birthday cake, but she decided to let her. She was curious about the elf’s cooking. It couldn’t be as bad as Kiana’s… She was wrong.
Elysia was clumsy, but Mei was there to help her with anything in the progress of baking the cake. Now they needed to wait for the cake to finish baking. “I am sorry. Baking cake is harder than I thought,” the elf sighed.
“It takes practice,” Mei noticed some whipped cream on Elysia’s face. “Wait a minute, Elysia.” She gently held her face and used a napkin to wipe away the cream.
“Oh, thank you! But Mei, that was the perfect chance for you to lick it off my face~” Mei was uncertain if she was joking, but her face reddened from the suggestion.
“No! I don’t want the cake to burn if we start making out now!” Mei also didn’t want another flamechaser to come in at an awkward time. “Instead, we can get ready to frost the cake.”
“So you’re okay if we do it later~” she teased.
“I did not say that!” Mei sighed and took out the ingredients to make the frosting. “How about you choose the color for the cake?” She would take a good guess Elysia would pick pink.
“I’ll take pink, but I want to try and incorporate everyone’s colors as well!” The flamechaser said while she was looking through the color options. “Mmm, I wish I was good as Griseo when blending colors. She seemed to be able to get any colors!”
Mei had finished making the frosting and checked how the elf was doing with the colors. Elysia had already picked a color for almost everyone except Sakura.
“I am having difficulty deciding for her because I think we both represent the pink color well.”
Mei paused for a moment. “Maybe we can go with a darker color for Sakura?” From how she saw it, Elysia was more of a bright pink color, while Sakura matches more of the darker shade of pink.” The elf always gave off more of a bright and cheerful presence that lit up the room. On the other hand, Sakura has a cooler aura around her.
“That’s a good interpretation! I’ll go with that!” Elysia made two shades of pink.
Mei took the cake out of the oven. She was pleased with how it turned out and waited for it to cool. In the meantime, she and Elysia discussed what decorations to put on the cake. Initially, the flamechaser suggested some complicated designs that Mei believed she wouldn’t do it well enough, so she turned them down. Ultimately, they agreed to go with simple symbol designs for each of the thirteen flamechasers.
Mei sighed, relieved that the decorations were okay, and Elysia looked intently at the cake. “It’s still missing something,” the elf mumbled to herself.
“Huh? What else is it missing?” Mei counted several times before she got all the flamechasers.
“You’re missing!” Elysia answered, which left her confused.
“But why? I am not a flamechaser.” She was confused why the elf was suggesting she be added.
“But you are our successors, so you do have a spot to be with us,” Elysia would draw a pair of red horns on the cake, which led Mei to frown why she specifically chose that as her symbol. Elysia must love her horns, huh… Mei shivered slightly, remembering the first she touched her horns.
“There you are, Ellie and Mei,” Eden entered the bakery, and Elysia quickly hugged the diva. “Eden! My beloved Eden!” The elf greeted Eden with multiple kisses.
After a few minutes, Eden finally spoke up about why she was there. “Ellie, the others are ready. I also got many dresses for you to choose from.”
Seeing how Elysia was happy to be with Eden, Mei attempted to leave because the flamechasers should have their night to celebrate.
“Mei! You are not leaving before the party even started!” Elysia grabbed onto her hand.
“But I told you before that I am not a flamechaser. I don’t want to be in the way.” Mei was fine with coming back to the Elysian Realm another time.
“As the birthday girl today, I invite you to my party! Now you can’t make me sad and turn me down, right?” Elysia asked with a smile, knowing the answer to the question already.
“I guess I have no choice,” Mei responded, and Elysia nodded with a smile. “But wait, don’t forget the cake!” She made sure to put it in a box before they set out.
“Now we have no time to waste! Let’s go!” Elysia held both Eden and Mei’s hands and headed back to the Golden Courtyard to celebrate with the rest of the flamechasers.