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Have I checked this one already?
No, surely, this time it smells different…
Staring deep inside of a trash can, Stelle could feel it glaring back at her, as if it had eyes of its own.
There’s an added layer of depth into this trash can from it sparkling. Perhaps it was recently cleaned?
“Oh, is that you there Stelle?” A familiar voice called out.
Bowing out of the garbage can, Stelle turned around to see Bronya standing right in front of her.
“I was just taking a stroll around here,” Briefly pausing to glance up and down at Stelle, a scrutinized look appeared on Bronya's face. “What exactly are you doing there?”
“The trash cans have a lot of depth to them.”
“The trash cans… What depth could they possibly have?” Bronya inquired.
She wouldn’t get it. These garbage cans tell a story in their own way.
“Stelle? Are you there?”
“Huh? Of course.”
Sighing a breath of relief, Bronya seemed to have returned back to her regular, calm, expression.
Extending her hand for Stelle, a warm smile appeared on Bronya’s face. “Would you care to join me on a stroll? It seems we could both use this time to clear our minds.”
“Sure,” said Stelle, firmly nodding in agreement.
The wind felt faint on Stelle and Bronya as they continued their stroll around Belobog. With it being such an early time of day, the city felt thinner as the people of Belobog were hardly to be found. Despite that, shop owners still arrived early, setting up for business later in the day.The two of them agreed upon getting some early breakfast, as they found an open café with outside seating.
“Here you go, Supreme Guardian.” said the waitress as she gracefully delivered Bronya’s plate of strawberry jam tarts and tea.
“Ah, thank you,” replied Bronya.
Turning towards Stelle, the waitress delicately placed the plate of croissants and coffee to her, served with a smile that seemed too joyful for the morning.
“Thanks,” Stelle casually replied.
The sound of the waitress walking away was drowned out by Stelle’s fixation on Bronya, as she watched her take a small sip from the teacup with closed eyes. She couldn’t help but be awestruck by Bronya’s appearance in front of her, the sunlight adding a lightness to every inch of her.
Slowly opening her eyes, Bronya had set down her teacup. “Mmm, this tea is actually quite aromatic.”
Noticing that Stelle had been staring at her, a small hint of red appeared on Bronya’s face.
“Sorry if I had dragged you out of any morning plans you had,” said Bronya faintly, “I was just surprised to see you still here.”
Realizing that Bronya had just mentioned something about her, Stelle snapped out of her gaze on Bronya. “I don’t mind it at all, we’re just here for a bit longer since the crew didn’t want to leave the planet yet.”
“By the crew, I assume you mean March 7th?” Bronya said with a slight chuckle.
“That’s right. Although, Pom-Pom did say it would be fine in the schedule to spend a couple extra days here.”
“That’s good.” Sighing with relief, Bronya’s shimmering smile started to appear. “I’m glad that you’re still here to see how Belobog is. I’m doing the best that I can for my role as the Supreme Guardian. At least, that’s how I want to view it.”
“Are you sure you’re doing alright with that? I wouldn’t blame you if you still had a lot of unresolved feelings from everything with Madam Cocolia.”
The smile on her face quickly disappeared as Bronya frowned while picking up her strawberry jam tart. “To be honest, I… I’m sure there’s a lot of things to unpack. But I can’t divulge myself to those thoughts just yet. I need to be strong for the citizens of Belobog.”
“There’s more to it though, right?” asked Stelle, noticing Bronya’s gloomy expression take over.
“You're as meticulous as ever, Stelle. But you don’t really expect me to disclose everything right here, do you?” Bronya pointed her head around, to gesture at the open surroundings. “It wouldn’t be of much benefit to waste this atmosphere on a topic like this. We should talk about something else.”
Waving her strawberry jam tart playfully at Stelle, Bronya took a small bite of it before she covered her mouth, wincing in response to the flavor.
“That sour?” Stelle cocked her head in return to Bronya’s newfound expression.
Nodding wildly, Bronya slowly put the tart down before opening her mouth.
Grimacing, Bronya took another look at her strawberry jam tart. “It’s exceedingly sour.”
“Really? Well then,” Stelle opened her mouth in anticipation. “Aah~”
“...What are you doing?” asked Bronya with a concerned look.
“You said it’s sour, so I wanted to try some.”
“But why are you opening your mouth for that?”
“So you can feed it to me,” responded Stelle smugly.
Puzzled, Bronya examined Stelle’s expression to see if it would change. Unsurprisingly, Stelle continued to hold her mouth open, waiting for Bronya to take the next step.
“Sometimes you’re really strange, Trailblazer.” Bronya remarked.
Realizing that Stelle would continue to wait until she had given some of the tart, Bronya nervously moved it closer to Stelle’s mouth. Ruthlessly, crumbs fell as she stood up from the table to reach her.
As Stelle munched down on the tart, Bronya was finally able to relax again in her chair, adjusting to be more comfortable despite a growing heartbeat.
“It’s surprisingly sweet,” muttered Stelle.
“There’s no way you’re serious about that,” Bronya said while her eyebrows furrowed.
“I am,” Stelle’s fixated view returned, this time being openly visible to Bronya. “And I’m serious about this too.”
Stelle steadied herself, leaning in closer to Bronya. “I know a place where we can seriously talk.”
“Y-you do?” Bronya’s face went from furrowed to puzzled yet again.
Seeing Stelle’s unwavering confidence for herself, Bronya took a moment to think about what she could have meant by those words.
“Alright, we can go there. But only after we finish eating here.”
Hastily, Stelle scarfed down her food in order to get to their next destination faster. Unfazed by her speed, Bronya resumed eating her tart at a regular pace.
This time, it really did taste sweet.
Walking through a short corridor, Stelle and Bronya had eventually reached their location. A room awaited them on the right, and as Bronya stepped in, Stelle quickly locked the door.
Bewildered, Bronya looked around as she had now fully recognized where they were. “This was the place you were talking about?”
“Where else would you be thinking?” teased Stelle as she looked around the room.
Sighing, Bronya examined the room and noticed how there weren't many personal belongings of Stelle. Notably, the room had looked hardly untouched, save for a few chair placements.
Without a doubt, a room like this could only belong to the Goethe Hotel.
A soft sound could be heard as Stelle went to lay on the bed face up and star shaped. Dutifully, Bronya sat down on the cushioned bench in front of it.
Perhaps it was because the room was empty between the two of them, or that there wasn’t much noise from outside that led to Bronya feeling tranquil. She hadn’t felt this way in a long time, at least not since the events following the Trailblazer’s arrival. Before then, she had thought things to be much simpler, from her relationship with her mother to her role as heiress to the Supreme Guardian.
Deep down, she knew that change had to come eventually. That’s what mother had prepared her for after all. But the warmth that came from that was always followed by the pain, no matter how much Bronya tried to push it away. The fact that she would never see her family again, nor unsee what had happened to her, was enough to constantly weigh down Bronya.
Suddenly, a pair of arms wrapped around Bronya, surprising her as the gentle weight placed itself on her right shoulder.
“What are you sitting around for? Come on and join me already.” suggested Stelle, who had comfortably taken herself to envelop Bronya, as she waited for a response.
“Um… Is it really alright for me to rest here?” murmured Bronya as she turned to face Stelle, who was almost touching her face.
Grinning, Stelle nuzzled her face. “Of course it is, I took you here after all.”
“A-alright then.”
Removing her arms gradually from Bronya, Stelle returned to laying, this time patting down the spot where Bronya should be on the bed.
Following her lead, Bronya gradually managed to make her way onto the bed, laying closely right next to Stelle. She wasn’t used to being this close physically to someone, especially not in a closed environment. This irregular experience was new to her, as proven by her heartbeat loudly thumping.
Sensing something was off with Bronya, Stelle shifted herself around until she was face-to-face with her, and noticed visible agitation from her face. Searching for a way to dissipate that look, she had come to an idea to help Bronya.
“Hey Bronya,” inquired Stelle.
“Hm? What is it?” replied Bronya as she shifted her gaze to Stelle.
“Could you try closing your eyes for me?”
Perplexed, Bronya wasn’t quite sure of what to make out of Stelle’s words. “What good would that do?”
“Just trust me on this one, and listen to my voice.”
Exhaling a deep breath of consideration, Bronya focused her attention on Stelle. “Very well then, I’ll give it a try.”
Closing her eyes, Bronya could see nothing but darkness. That is, until those past memories started recalling themselves in her head.
“What do you see with your eyes closed?” asked Stelle.
In a gloomy way, Bronya had managed to describe what she saw. “I see… The precious moments with mother and my time in the Underworld. The despair from being in the front line with the SIlvermane Guards, the doubts the citizens of Belobog may have about me…”
As Bronya continued listing off more worries, Stelle had now realized a part of Bronya she wasn’t able to see before. That rare, vulnerable, side of Bronya was something Stelle knew she needed to cherish.
“Now, open your eyes.” instructed Stelle.
It wasn’t easy for Bronya to open her eyes, as the things she had felt and saw while laying for such a short period of time perturbed her. However, she knew she had to keep trying no matter what.
After managing to squint through the memories, Bronya blinked and after a few times noticed that Stelle had gotten ever closer to her, to the point where their noses were almost touching.
“What do you see?” Stelle asked, gently smiling at Bronya.
“I believe I just see you…” mumbled Bronya.
Leaning back, Stelle giggled to herself. “Haha, my bad. What about now?”
Shyfully, Bronya looked back up again, and recognized the view from the window.
“Exactly. That city, even this planet, is what you have,” explained Stelle.
A disappointed smile flashed across Bronya’s mouth. “But I already knew that…”
Stelle leaned back in again, this time softly speaking to Bronya. “What you’re able to see with your eyes open is what’s really there… I know it’s not easy, and it might not help at all, but you can only really move forward with your eyes open. Having them shut sometimes is a part of life, but if they’re always closed, you’ll get lost in the darkness.”
“Stelle, I…”
“I know it’s not easy to take charge of things after all the pain you’ve been through. I can’t imagine having to deal with all that burden placed on you since you were little. But that’s okay, because learning to sift through all that and find your real self, that’s what really matters.”
“...”
“And you’re not alone in this either, you know? You can rely on all of us to help you. You only need to ask, and we’ll be there. Or in our case, a text away. Either way, we won’t let you falter.”
Abruptly, Bronya maneuvered her hands to tightly hug Stelle, and placed her head on her right shoulder again.
“Bronya…?” said Stelle, surprised at the sudden gesture.
Bronya’s hand moved to steadily stroke Stelle’s head. “Thank you, Stelle. It means a great deal to me that you care this much.”
“That’s because I believe in you, Bronya,” said Stelle as she buried herself on Bronya’s shoulder.
Feeling Bronya’s arms relieve some pressure from the hug, Stelle was able to push herself up on the bed, not realizing until now that she was on top of Bronya, and that Bronya had dawned a smile that glowed as bright as the brightest suns.
“I’ll do my best to put forth your belief in my heart. But right now, I don’t want to be a text away from you.” as Bronya said that, she had once again pulled Stelle in with her arms, this time, slowly inching towards her soft lips for a kiss.
Stelle had no experience before with a kiss, which flustered her as she leaned in for Bronya. Even though she was unremarkable at it, she could feel Bronya’s passion seep through, with the warmth of trust passing between their lips.
Slightly panting afterwards from the kiss, Bronya’s face reddened as she blushed, unable to hide her elation at what she had just done. “If it’s alright with you, Stelle, I’d like to spend a bit more time with you today.”
“Anything for you, Bronya.” Stelle answered.
“Anything?”
“Anything.”
The bright red spots on Bronya’s face remained constant as she tilted forward for another kiss, happily expressing her joy to be with Stelle. Nothing could compare to the feeling of comfort she felt from being with Stelle at that moment she thought, as they kept each other company for the rest of the day.