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“Anis.” Euphyllia Magenta called out to the woman sipping on tea across from her.
The two were enjoying a quiet evening after a nice day of tinkering away at the workshop. Anis was trying to develop a way of easy mass transit by making something called a ‘Two-rain’ that would move upon rails and take people from one city to another. Euphyllia never understood where the princess got such ideas, but she could admit such a thing would quite literally change the way cities interacted with each other.
“What’s up Euphie?” Anisphia Wynn Palettia, first princess of the kingdom, said back to her.
Euphyllia’s index finger twitched slightly at the absolute casualness the blonde girl in front of her addressed her with. It wasn’t that she felt slighted or anything, and it was in fact rather normal to be addressed this way by her. But it was more of the matter of nerves getting to her.
Nervousness. Such a feeling would have been strange for the duke’s daughter to feel a year ago. But now it seemed to be almost commonplace along with a myriad of other emotions that seemed to only come out in full around the princess.
Nerves over if the princess in front of her had any ulterior motives at first. Nerves over whether or not the girl would take care of herself in experiments. Nerves of watching this girl face down a dragon without hesitating. Nerves over confessing her love to the beautiful blonde haired girl.
She cleared her throat. Psyching herself out was never a good idea.
“It has come to my realization…” Euphyllia licked her suddenly dry lips. “...That I greatly enjoy our time together, and would like to spend the rest of my life by your side.” She said, bearing her heart.
The immediate smile on Anis’ lips caused a warm flush to spread on Euphyllia’s cheeks. Her heart leapt at the sign of acceptance.
“Really! I feel the same way!” Anis said.
Euphyllia smiled brightly. It was a relief to know that the person across from her felt the same. Despite the fact that the woman constantly said things like how much she loved and appreciated Euphie, the reciprocation of feelings felt nice.
“I’m glad that you finally admitted how much you love magicology and want to dedicate your time to it! Having such a dedicated assistant feels wonderful!” Anis continued.
Euphyllia could imagine spending the rest of time together in a villa such as this. To work together on projects, smile over tea, laugh over simple things-
Wait what?
“What?” Euphyllia couldn’t help but voice in confusion.
Did she hear her right? Magicology? Did Anis think this was about Magicology for some reason?
“Yeah! I’m so fired up after hearing that I want to go right back to the project we’re working on! The faster we finish this the faster we can change the world!”
With that declaration, the princess put the tea back on its saucer and rushed off in the direction of the workshop.
Euphyllia just stared at the spot where the woman she just confessed her feelings to was a moment before.
Did that really just happen? Was she just rejected? But she was so sure she felt the same. Could it be that she had misinterpreted everything Anis was saying this entire time?
A touch to her shoulder brought her out of her brooding. She flinched in response at the sudden feeling.
“My apologies for startling you, Euphyllia-sama. But if I may have a word?” Ilia Coral, the head (and only) maid spoke.
“A-Ah. Please do.” Euphyllia stuttered, a part of her still not entirely there.
“I will once again apologize for my bluntness. But Anis-sama, genius as she may be, is an incredibly dense idiot.”
“I-I see.”
Euphyllia had lost track of how many times Ilia had spoken with uttermost honesty regarding the princess, but it was always a shock to hear it. Maid or not, rarely would anyone speak so bluntly and openly about someone.
“If you wish for your feelings to get through. You must not give up and try again more directly. I am sure your feelings will reach her then.”
The flush on her cheeks returned in direct reference to her feelings regarding the princess, but Euphyllia knew that Ilia only spoke with good intentions.
She nodded. “Thank you Ilia. I will take your words to heart then.”
The maid placed a hand over her heart and bowed. “It is my pleasure, Euphyllia-sama.”
So, Euphyllia mused. She just needed to be more direct? How hard could that be?
As it turned out. Incredibly difficult.
Anis had once mentioned to her that calling something easy before it even happened, would ‘jinx’ it. Euphyllia didn’t understand exactly what that meant, but she got the general feeling that it would bring bad luck. She never imagined Anis to be the superstitious type, so she filed it away as an ‘Anisphia moment’ in the back of her mind and chose to ignore it.
Perhaps this was what she meant?
Her method of confession was rather simple. A letter addressed to Anis, requesting her hand in marriage. She had written it, looked over it, rewritten it two more times before finally signing it as Euphyllia Magenta. There was no talk about politics. No talk about magicology or magic. There was only the simple matter of requesting her hand in marriage.
She delivered it hand to hand, directly to the woman in question.
“Oh what’s this Euphie?” Anis said, taking the latter from her.
“A letter.” She spoke, ignoring the warmth settling in her cheeks. “From me to you, requesting your hand in marriage.”
“Whoa.”
Anis opened the letter, being surprisingly careful not to tear the seal. She unfolded the contents and began to read through it. Euphyllia could see her eyes scan from one side of the page to the next, until it reached the end of the letter.
“So may I have your answer?” Euphyllia said, when Anis folded the letter back up.
“Ah… well I’m flattered and all but I’ve told you before Euphie that you don’t need to worry about politics when you’re here with me!”
Euphyllia could feel her brain short circuit at the answer. Politics? How could she even get to that conclusion? She made sure to be very clear and direct, and not mention anything regarding politics in that letter.
“A-Anis that’s not-” She started to say.
“If your dad or my father tried to pressure you into writing that. Don’t worry about it! I’ll give them a stern talking to!” Anis smiled at her.
Setting aside the fact that Anis had just promised to give a ‘stern talking’ to either the Prime Minister or the King himself, Euphyllia never felt like she wanted to ram her head against the wall until that moment. How was it possible for such a genius to be so incredibly dense? How much more direct did she need to be?
In the corner of her vision, she could see Ilia shake her head in sympathy.
“Anis.”
“Yes, Euphie?”
“I love you.”
“Haha! I love you too Euphie! I’m glad we’re such good friends.”
Euphyllia resisted the urge to scream.
“Anis.”
“What’s up?”
“Please marry me.”
“Is this another political thing? I told you that I’d talk to your father if needed!”
Euphyllia denied any participation in the sudden uprooting of half a forest.
“Anis.”
“Hi Euphie!”
“You’re a dense idiot.”
“W-What! That’s rude! I haven’t even done anything today!”
Euphyllia sighed.
Euphyllia was nearly at her wit’s end. If she didn’t know the princess any better then she would just assume they were rejecting her and trying to spare her feelings. Unfortunately, she did know the princess quite well and knew she really was just a hugely dense idiot who couldn’t see what was going on in front of her two eyes. For all the genius she had at creating technological tools, she sure was blind. She had tried nearly everything bar straight up kissing her.
Wait.
Should she just do that?
There was no way to misconstrue something as direct as a kiss. Friends certainly didn’t just kiss each other, and there was no way to write it off as something political either.
Was that the key? Just kissing her?
She didn’t know, but at the very least, she could find out.
Euphyllia got up from her seat and immediately set out towards Anis’ room. She was likely in the middle of drafting up some sketches of a new invention, so Euphyllia could just catch her doing that.
Instead of the room itself, Euphyllia instead found her just outside of it. “Anisphia.” She called.
The princess turned to her. “Oh hi Euphie! What are you doing-”
Euphyllia interrupted the girl by getting in close to her personal space. She took advantage of the single step backwards the princess took in confusion and planted a hand on the wall near her head, essentially trapping her between the wall and herself.
“W-Whoa. Kabedon. I never saw the appeal before but it’s kinda heart pounding.” Anis rambled, her eyes wide.
Euphyllia had no idea what a ‘Caw bay don’ was, but ignored it completely. “Anisphia.” She repeated.
“U-Uhm. Y-Yes? What’s wrong? Are you angry? You don’t use my full name often… I’m kinda scared haha!”
“You’re right.” Euphyllia admitted. “I am angry.”
“What! Why? Is this because of the other day? I didn’t mean to take your pudding I swear!”
The silver-haired girl’s eye twitched at the knowledge that her pudding was taken, but she ignored that. She had more important things to focus on.
“I’m angry, because you’re dense and don’t understand my feelings for you.”
“F-Feelings for me? What are you-”
Euphyllia once again interrupted the princess. This time silencing her by capturing the golden-haired girl’s lips with her own.
Anis’ lips were soft and tasted very faintly of some flavor of citrus, likely from the tea she was drinking. Their kiss wasn’t like one from those romance novels that had a shock flowing through them, as if the entire world had suddenly aligned. But it was more peaceful, more fulfilling. There were no extra emotions besides how right it felt. As if this was what was meant to be.
Euphyllia parted to catch her breath. The world seemed to fall away as it was only her and Anis. The shorter girl stared up at her in shock, her green shimmering eyes were wide and her lips glistened in a manner that beckoned her back.
She pulled back on the urge to recapture her lips and instead spoke. “So? Can I have your answer?”
Euphyllia took deep breaths in an attempt to stabilize her breathing, she was watching the princess closely, looking for any sort of rejection. The blonde girl was instead shocked to her core, her face unchanging as she continued to stare at Euphyllia.
There was something inherently funny at seeing the normally unflappable, rambling machine called Anisphia being so utterly speechless.
“Anis?” Euphyllia murmured, a small piece of anxiety starting to well up at the prolonged silence.
“Ah.” Anis squeaked, seemingly coming back to life. “Uhm. Uhm. Ah-”
Did she break her? That wasn’t good.
“Anis.” Euphyllia whispered, grasping one of her hands into her own. “I’m sorry for surprising you. Please speak to me.”
"Uh- Ah- Wh-" Anis stopped and turned away, a bright blush staining her cheeks. "D-Did you mean that?”
There was a soft, unmistakable tone of veiled vulnerability in her voice. It was the first time Euphyllia had ever heard it from the usually bright and imperturbable princess. “Of course, you dense idiot.” She sighed in fond exasperation.
“H-Hey! You said that a few days ago too!”
“Because you are. All those times I confessed my feelings to you only for you to write it off as friendship or something our fathers pushed for.”
“What are you-” There was a flash of understanding that passed through her face. “Oh… Then all those times you-”
“Yes. I was trying to tell you how I feel.”
“...I might be an idiot.” Anis muttered.
“You are, but at the very least, I hope you can be my idiot.”
“T-That doesn’t really make me feel any better.”
Euphyllia licked her lips. She had a faint idea on the direction that the conversation was taking, and judging by the bright blush and look of anticipation on Anis’ face, she did too.
“Then what would make you feel better?”
The princess’ green eyes stared up at her. “U-Uhm. M-Maybe another kiss…”
Euphyllia smiled. “Anything for you, my dense idiot.”
“H-Hey! I-”
She was silenced again as their lips connected once more.