Work Text:
“New years is always a very big deal, back at my home.” Euterpe watches Tristan dig through the cabinets as he chatted on. “It would quite literally be the new beginning for everything, and a lot of preparations are done. Here…much less, but I guess the magic of experiencing a new year when all meaning of it is lost under the water has faded since a long time ago.”
“It’s still a little surreal to me, though.” Euterpe takes a look at the calendar, now with the Citrusverse Standard Time display panel right next to it. December 31st, Year 54, 2.5 years since all that jargon went on. Since the end of the Revolution’s last stand against the EdEN Corporation, Euterpe had been working on Mnemosyne’s body again with the same blueprints, this time determined to make it better before going to sabotage the company and finally leave to become a freelancer. The details were done, and really right now he was just recalibrating all the body mass generators and modellers for his specific operation.
And Citrusverse Standard Time, December 31st, Timeline 11, 2023, the timeline after Tristan took control of Citrusverse.
As Rae and Simon went out for their respective group celebrations, Euterpe was left with Tristan at their group’s shared home, to the Protagonist’s secret delight.
He continues as he watches his god pour tea leaves into a strainer. “It’s been a whole year and stuff, and we’ve done a lot of things since then. It just feels…a little scary to step into a whole new 365 days.”
“But you have me.” The aroma of the tea leaves waft from the two hands of Tristan as he slowly steeps the tea, mixing with Tristan’s slight naturally flowery scent. Euterpe stops to take a whiff of the tea aroma, before he smiles and gently bumps him on the side.
“I know. You make my years less daunting to go through.” To his happiness, a rare, brighter smile blooms on his partner’s face. Euterpe looks down to the cups of tea. “By the way, what are these?”
“Jasmine green.” Tristan replies, focusing on the next cup as he passes the finished mug to him. “Just a very light tea to not bore your tastebuds. I’m not a big fancy of this tea, but I can’t have myself stay up too late tonight. Remember what we have to do tomorrow?”
As Euterpe basks in the mental drunkenness achieved by good tea, he takes a sip before answering, feeling the steam tickle his nose as he spoke. “Rowell’s still tracking down Inka, right? I can go sort the results from the analytics right now.”
Tristan hums as he puts the strainer into the sink. “Yes, but Ro told us he just wants to meet up for lunch tomorrow as a New Years thing, work can wait, love.” Euterpe slightly heats up from the pet name. “Say, isn’t there fireworks at the more populated Cities in like 20 minutes?”
Euterpe continues drinking from his mug. “Only at City 2, 5 and 8, our city bureau is completely dead again.”
“Right. Though we can still see it from the coastal shoreline.” He watches as Tristan sips from his mug. “Which one’s the nearest?”
Euterpe flicks through his reminders on his internal HUD. “City 5’s. To our west.”
“We best get going then.” Tristan takes one last gulp out of his mug before setting it down and grabbing a cup cover. Euterpe, having already finished, deposits his mug into the sink and retrieves his jacket from the sofa, pulling it over his sweater, he looks over to Tristan, slinging on his windbreaker over his hoodie, then grins. “Race you to the coast?”
“Parkour or ground?” Euterpe retrieves his gloves.
“Parkour, might have too many gangs lurking around during the Eve.” Tristan puts on his gloves as the two of them walked to the hallway and climbed the ladder to the rooftop. When the duo had fully stretched, on a count of three, they jumped from the edge and collectively landed on the roof of the building in front of theirs. The two then split off into their own paths, with Euterpe feeling the biting cold wind brush against his sides while he grappled himself across the low skyline of Western City 3. As blurs of abandoned buildings whizzed past him, he grabs at the last rooftop edge to the wide coast before him, and hurls himself onto the top, before sliding down the side pipe to meet Tristan, who was seconds ahead. Euterpe grunts, and smiles. “You really don’t get any older.”
“Takes a little more to beat me, ‘terps.” Tristan laughs, before taking a moment to cough. “Though, you are pretty hard to beat too.”
“C’mon.” Euterpe pats Tristan’s fluffy hair, sticking up in various directions from the wind. “Let’s go.”
They approach the coastline, and Euterpe leads them to a nearby bench, a little rusted from lack of upkeep, but sturdy and safe to sit on regardless. They stare out into the starry night sky, and Euterpe lays his head on the other’s shoulder in midst of the comfortable silence.
“Euterpe.” Euterpe silently comments to himself how much he liked Tristan saying his name.
“Hm?”
“I’m glad that we’re here together.”
Euterpe shifts to sit up, to look at Tristan, still locked in his distant look out towards the dark, rolling sea. “And I’m glad you haven’t given up, despite everything.” He watches Tristan snap out of his gaze and focus on him. “Thank you.”
A moment of silence passes by, before Euterpe finds his lips crashing into his partner’s. He barely gets the time to gasp in surprise before Tristan gently nips at his upper lip, causing a soft, love-drunken giggle to tumble out of his throat. The two only parted when they started to run out of air to continue the (extremely addicting) teasing act. Euterpe stares into those familiar warm crimson eyes, before breaking out into a chortle, leading the other to do the same.
“I love you so much.” Tristan murmurs when they cradled each other in their arms moments later.
And Euterpe whispers back, voice nothing less of endearment to this silly human that just so happened to bear the burden of the entire universe they were in. “I love you too.”
And throughout the midnight hours, they watched in comfortable silence, in eachother’s warm presence the colorful flowers of fireworks that bloomed in the sky across the seas, and although there was distance, those colors did not look any less beautiful.
Somewhere in the haze of those colors painting the sky, Euterpe wished to the stars that the new year would continue their path to the future they have always wanted, against all odds, and promised to the Earth he’d follow Tristan to the ends of the universe, beyond when his core runs cold and time ceases to exist.
Their fingers intertwine, and he hopes that he could live in this moment forever.