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The temperature was getting unbearable. The engine of creation was roaring with heat, in a stark contrast to the ever growing blizzard around it, making the struggle against the hordes of fragmentum monsters all the more troubling. But it was about to end.
March looked up slightly from the fight against the fragmentum monsters on ground level. Up there, at the head of the engine of creation, Caelus was fighting against Cocolia. Helping him was outside of her reach now. She just had to trust in him to win the fight.
It would be a tall order for anyone, but if anyone could do it, it was him, the man who had fought with her against the antimatter legion less than an hour after waking up with amnesia, the man who had taken a blast from the doomsday beast for her, and the man who was facing down the mother of deception now.
She returned her attention to the fight below, barely managing to dodge a swing from an Incineration Shadewalker before retaliating with an arrow, breaking it’s stance and felling it, and she then rejoined the fight fully.
At the top of the engine, Caelus was giving his all against Cocolia, but he knew he was fighting a losing battle. His strength and energy were quickly leaving him, and he found himself completely winded. He took his eyes off Cocolia for one second to catch his breath, before finding himself caught in a barrage of icicles, pushed to his knees by the attack, as Cocolia laughed at the sight. An aura of ice appeared around her, a sign of a strong attack, but Caelus couldn’t find the energy within him to move
“Humanity… so weak and foolish. Always overestimating their abilities.” She taunted “Let me bestow upon you… despair!”
March saw a flash of white at the top of the engine out of the corner of her eye, and turned her head, only to see the worst sight she could have possibly seen. Caelus, fully impaled by an icicle, falling off the roof of the engine towards the icy ground
“No!” March shrieked as she abandoned the battle against the fragmentum rushing towards where he would land
She heard various pleas behind her, but she was deaf to them. She needed to reach Caelus, she had to try to catch him, break his fall, anything. What she failed to see as she watched his descent, was the engine rearing it’s arm behind him, threatening to crush him when he landed, which at this rate, would take her with it.
Caelus at last was within reach, and as he fell to the ground, March was only able to embrace him for a second, before the arm of the engine was too close to avoid, crushing her under it’s weight
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March gasped out for air as her head rose from her pillow. She was breathing deeply as she looked around confirming her surroundings
“I’m still on the express… it’s fine… it was just a bad dream…” She tried to reassure herself, but to no avail, as she found herself still shedding tears. She tried her best to comfort herself, looking for one of her plushies to cling to.
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Caelus was awoken by a sudden shriek from behind March’s door. He groaned a bit at first. He was still having to sleep in the parlor car, as they hadn’t managed to get a room for him yet. What that meant was that whenever someone (March) was awake late at night, or someone (March) was talking in their sleep, it was very easy for him to hear it. Couple that with him being a light sleeper, and his nights were frequented with wake ups.
Still, that shriek was far greater than anything he had heard before. He felt like he should check in on her. Truthfully, he wasn’t sure why. He was sure she was fine, but he felt a strong desire to make sure she was fine. He had always felt an inexplicable desire to watch out for her, but especially so right now. So he got up, and trudged over to her door.
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She heard a knock at her door, before a voice rang out behind it “March? Are you okay?” Caelus’ voice said from behind the barricade.
March thought about just calling out to him from where she was, but she didn’t want to risk waking up the others, who might still be asleep, so she forced herself to get out of bed and trudge over to the door.
“I-I’m fine. Just a bad dream.” March tried to sound confident, but her voice was betraying her. She was still trying, and failing, to hold back tears.
Caelus could hear the uncertainty in her voice, though he couldn’t tell exactly what was going on. “Are you sure you’re fine? It sounds like you’re not doing great.” He hit himself mentally at that choice of words. He wasn’t great at sensitive moments, and his ineptitude was being put on full display here.
“Y-yeah. Don’t worry. I just need a second.” March was trying to reassure both Caelus and herself with those words. Perfectly fine… just need a moment to sort things out mentally
“Alright.” Caelus said, before his voice hesitated for a second “Are you alright if I leave then?”
“Y-yeah…” March said weakly.
“... Okay. Sleep well.” Caelus turned to walk away.
“W-wait! Actually…” March blurted out without thinking.
“Hmm? What is it? Do you want me to get you some water?” Caelus inquired. He was a bit tired, but he cared about March, and wanted to make sure she was okay.
“... Could you come in for a bit?”
Caelus was a bit confused by this request, but he didn’t see any reason not to. “.. Sure.”
“...Okay.” March opened the door. It was still dark, so the two could only see each other's figures, a fact that made March a bit more comfortable. She was sure she looked absolutely terrible right now, and she didn’t want him to see her like that.
The two just stood like that for a second. Caelus didn’t just want to invite himself in without cue, but the awkwardness was starting to be a bit much even for him.
March was trying to hold herself back, but it got to be too much for her. She rushed forward, embracing him without warning, and holding him as tight to her as she could.
Caelus was a bit surprised by this, and wasn’t really sure what to do. He’d only had memory of a couple of months, and he was good at almost everything except moments of intimacy. So all he did was awkwardly embrace her back.
March felt his arms around her, and started to softly smile. She felt safe now that she was close to him. She always felt safer when he was near.
Neither of the two said anything for a bit, and just stood there for a while, until March started to loosen her grip around Caelus.
She knew the words she wanted to say, but for some reason, her voice was failing her. So she said the only words she seemed to be able to
“I’m sorry…” She mumbled weakly
“Don’t worry about it.” Caelus replied softly. “I know you’d have done the same for me.”
March found herself chuckling a bit at that. That response was very much like him. She found herself a bit more comfortable, and her breathing had almost fully returned to normalcy, so she said the words she wanted to in the first place.
“Caelus… I love you.” She said clearly as she held him close.
“March…” Caelus was a bit surprised by her words. Truthfully he had no idea how to process this. He hadn’t considered love at all, since most of his time that he could remember was so busy, but with March’s secret laid bare before him, it suddenly clicked. He knew why it was he felt so worried for her, and why he had always wanted to make sure she was safe. So, he returned the words. “I love you too.”
They stayed there, holding each other close, until their legs threatened to give out, and they were forced to seperate.
“Feeling better?” Caelus asked her.
“I think so.” March replied. Her voice was still a bit hoarse from the tears, but she wasn’t crying near as much now, and her face was painted with a smile. She was not just comforted, but she felt free as well, now that she didn’t have to hold her secret anymore. “Do you want to come in for a bit?” She knew what she wanted, but she was still incredibly nervous. She wasn’t sure if Caelus had responded just out of pressure.
Caelus, meanwhile, was surprised at her request. Truthfully, he did just want to go back to sleep, but a part of him wanted to follow March. And so he did. “Sure.”
March made way for him to come in, and sat down on the bed. Her heart was pounding. Caelus had been in her room before, but not under a context like this. Caelus sat down next to her, and she almost subconsciously leaned against his shoulder. She didn’t bother asking beforehand, and now that she was there, she found it too comfortable to want to move. Not that Caelus would want her to. He was more than happy with her leaning against him.
They stayed like that for a while, until the silence got to be too much. At that point, March broke it with the first thing that came to her mind. After all, she felt he deserved to know. “The dream I had…”
“Stop.”
“Huh?”
“You don’t have to tell me. It’s fine. I’m sure remembering it would just make you sad again. So you don’t have to. You can just forget about it.”
“Caelus…” March said softly, turning her face to look at him. She could still barely see him in the dark, but she could see the outline of his face. “Thanks”
The pair stayed like that for a few minutes longer, though to them, it was the most blissful time they had ever had. They felt truly safe.
Caelus started to yawn. “I think I should get back to bed. It’s really late, and I don’t want to be too late for breakfast tomorrow.”
“Yeah, wouldn’t want Pom-Pom to come and wake us up.” The two shared a short laugh, before March willed up the courage to give her last selfish request of the night. “Caelus?”
“Yeah?”
“Would you mind sleeping in here tonight? With me?”
“Huh? Why?”
March was silent for a second, before she told him “I have a feeling that if you’re close to me, I won’t have to worry about any more nightmares.”
It was Caelus’ turn to be silent for a bit. Part of him wanted to go back out and sleep on his own, but he didn’t feel like he could leave March alone at this time. Or maybe, it was that he just didn’t want to. Either way he agreed. “Sure. Whatever you want.”
March grinned for a second, before standing up and moving the covers out of the way a bit, and laying down in her bed. Caelus joined her shortly after, and she quickly nuzzled up next to him, which made him laugh a bit.
“Good night March.” He said, before he closed his eyes.
“Mmm. Night.” March said, already wrapping herself around him as best she could.
The two would likely have exchanged more words, or moved closer to each other, if they didn’t both fall asleep so fast.
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A ringing woke Caelus up. He was a bit confused, there wasn’t an alarm clock in the parlor car after all, most of the time he was just woken up by Himeko leaving her room. He was also a bit confused as he opened his eyes, as the room he was in did not look like the parlor car. This looks a lot like…!
A stirring around his shoulder surprised him, as March started to move her head
"Mmmm-” March made a humming sound as she tried to reach for the snooze button. It was at this point that Caelus tried to subtly move away. He remembered getting into bed with her, but didn’t remember anything else about the night, and was worried about what kind of reaction she’d have when she woke up.
As he moved away, he felt an arm wrap around the top of his body, almost as though she didn’t want to let him go. He also heard her start to make slightly more coherent sounds, but by this point, he had accepted that he wasn’t getting away
March opened her eyes a bit. She was further away from her clock than she usually was, and wasn’t quite ready to wake up. She also wasn’t quite ready to let go of the unfortunate soul next to her.
“Not yet…” She mumbled “You don’t have to leave yet.”
Caelus was certain March knew what was going on, so he didn’t feel a need to be quiet anymore. “March. Come on. Let me go.”
“Can we cuddle for five more minutes?”
“...Sure. Five more minutes.”