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Tonight was a beautiful night.
That was what Nerissa thought as she laid atop the hood of her truck parked right in front of her home. With the sky decorated with so many stars, Nerissa felt like she could reach out and grab a handful just with a single swipe of her hand.
A pleased sigh escapes her lips. The day tending to the farm had been tiring. Every limb in her body had ached from all the physical exertion, but to spend it now under these stars? Nerissa is reminded to look forward to the next day too.
Her eyes flutter shut just for a moment and when she reopens them, she catches sight of a shooting star. Red eyes follow it closely, the corner of her lips curling into a smile. Would you look at that. It was a shame Nerissa was alone.
I should take a photo for her Nerissa thinks as she reaches for her phone but before she can grab it, her fascination and awe quickly turn into confusion as she continues to watch the star.
Watching as it became bigger and bigger.
Watched as it fell and made contact with the surface of the Earth.
Nerissa winces as she feels her truck shake slightly from beneath her, no doubt from the tremors that impact caused. A testament to how close it was.
Nerissa sits up and eyes where the ‘shooting star’ landed, estimating it to be around where her cows were. She sucks in a breath and hops off her truck before getting inside it, leaving no room for thought as she revs up the engine to drive her way over to investigate.
She had to make sure her animals were safe. But to say she didn’t have an ulterior motive would be a fat lie.
With every second she drives down the dirt road, Nerissa’s heart pounds in her chest. Her mind racing with all kinds of thoughts and possibilities. More than once she considers turning around as she slowly comes to realize the gravity of the situation but the need to know was too strong to resist. So Nerissa floors the accelerator.
As soon as she’s close, she slows down and haphazardly parks her truck at the side of the road before practically leaping out of the driver’s seat to go out on foot.
It takes her a minute to find what she’s looking for but when she does, it’s hard to miss. In the middle of a little grove, thankfully outside the cow pens, was a crater.
Smoke rises up from the middle and surrounding it, there were puddles of a strange black substance Nerissa feels best she doesn’t touch without a ten feet pole.
Regardless of the risks, Nerissa keeps her stance low, her breathing steady as she slowly makes her way closer to the crater with bated breath to at least get an inkling of what laid there. Perhaps even use one of her other four senses to get an idea.
The last thing she expected to hear was a litany of curses in a language she definitely understands.
“This is the last fu–... time I rely on god–... awful deal and their sh–...”
Nerissa’s brows furrow and she moves with a little more boldness than she intended. Reaching the edge of the crater, she comes face to face with a human face.
“What the fu– ah!”
Wine red eyes meet golden orbs and Nerissa feels like she’s been suddenly doused by a cold bucket of water.
“Wait wait wait wait– don’t scream or panic or… just hear me out okay?” Nerissa had half a mind to not listen but she’s been making all sorts of decisions against her better judgement tonight, what’s one more?
She slaps her hand over her mouth and gives a small nod, a sign for the human– the woman to continue.
“Okay… thank you just uhm… you see… uh, hm… where do I begin…?” the woman scratches the back of her neck and although the gesture is small, it eases some of the tension from Nerissa’s shoulders.
At least she seems… harmless…?
“Okay let’s start with this, my name's Shiori Novella–” “Shiori?” Nerissa blurts out to which Shiori nods to confirm she didn’t hear wrong. “Yes Shiori, and look, I know this is all going to sound really really stupid considering I just told you my name but if anybody asks you if you saw anything, can you tell them you didn’t?”
“What…”
It’s then that Nerissa registers the sounds of sirens wailing in the distance, getting louder and louder. The authorities .
Nerissa curses under her breath, turning back over to Shiori who looked to be frantically looking for where to go next. Nerissa gives her a quick once over and takes note of the strange clothing she wore, the trinkets attached to her person, her hair colored in two contrasting tones, how she seemed relatively unscathed and clean despite emerging from a crater made out of a shooting star that fell from the sky.
All signs pointed to telling Nerissa to not get herself involved and yet again of course, she doesn’t heed that call.
In her mind, she makes a split second decision.
“Follow me.”
“What?” Shiori says incredulously.
“I live nearby, arrived by truck. I can drive you.”
Shiori brows furrow, adding more to the uncertainty on her face. “Why would you–” “The land’s too open here. You won’t get far on your own.”
Shiori chews on her bottom lip, the sirens getting increasingly louder as they close in on them and Nerissa’s eyes border on pleading. “We can go to my place. I won’t do anything and it’s just me there. I promise.”
Shiori opens her mouth to protest but no words come out. She screws her eyes shut, a heavy sigh making it past her lips before she stares at Nerissa with resignation. “Where to?”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Nerissa bolts it back to her truck with Shiori following closely behind. The former jumping into the driver seat while the latter gets in the passenger and together, they haul it out of there to Nerissa’s home.
After creating some distance between them and the authorities, Shiori lets herself relax, leaning back into the leather passenger seat. She hadn’t even realized just how tense she was until she winced at the feeling in her shoulders.
In an attempt to help and seeing as they were both a little sweaty from the running, Nerissa turns up the air conditioner to the max. A loud humming emanates from it as it struggles to provide cold air and Nerissa laughs sheepishly, glancing at Shiori from the corner of her eye while staying focused on the road. “Sorry it isn't the best.”
“It’s okay. Thank you.”
Nerissa nods stiffly, swallowing after a bit of difficulty. “My name’s Nerissa by the way. Sorry I didn’t say it earlier, not sure if that would’ve made you less hesitant but might as well now, right?” Shiori hums, the barest hint of a smile on her lips.
“I appreciate it. Thank you Nerissa.”
“Of course.”
The rest of the ride is quiet but thankfully it doesn’t take too long until they arrive at Nerissa’s place, pulling up into the driveway where the skid marks from before are briefly made obvious due to the glare of the headlights. If Shiori sees them, she makes no comment. “We’re here.”
Instead, Shiori is curiously looking out the windshield and is barely able to make out what looked to be a cozy little two story home. “Cute,” she says and Nerissa lets herself feel a little bit of pride. “Yeah, home sweet home.”
After parking the truck in its usual place, Nerissa is the first to get out and jog over to the front door, unlocking it and promptly holding it open for Shiori as soon as she arrives. The latter walks in first with a grateful smile and Nerissa enters after her, closing the door behind them then locking it for good measure.
Nerissa watches as Shiori looks around her home and she can’t help but let out a chuckle. “Welcome to my little abode. It’s not much but it’s home.”
“Really cute inside too,” Shiori says as she looks over at Nerissa with what could only be a teasing glint in her eye and that causes Nerissa to look away. “Yeah… was going for cottage core you know? If you know what that means…” she clears her throat as Shiori lets out a giggle, “Uhm, for tonight you can sleep in my room. The first room up the stairs to the right. I’ll take the couch down here.”
Faster than Nerissa can process, Shiori drops the teasing facade and in its place her expression shows genuine concern.
“Are you sure? Wouldn’t that hurt your back? Your spine?”
Nerissa blinks, chalking the question up to coincidence. “Well… it would but it’s just for a while so I don’t really think there’ll be a problem so…” Shiori presses her lips into a thin line, the way Nerissa trailed off not helping her doubt one bit.
But alas, the look on Nerissa’s face is all she needs to know that she won’t be winning this argument any time soon. Shiori sighs, “...if you say so.”
Nerissa on the other hand is beaming, very much satisfied with this outcome. Even if her future self is going to regret it.
“How about food? I can whip up something quick if you need?” “I’m good,” Shiori says dismissively but fate seemed to have seen a funny opportunity because it was then that her stomach decided to let out a very soft but audible grumble.
Nerissa raises a brow, giving Shiori a look. “Are you sure?”
“I don’t want to trouble you,” Shiori mutters under her breath, ever so reluctant but Nerissa doesn’t back down. An unstoppable force to an immovable object. “How about something light then? A little snack, can we agree on that?”
“Uh…”
“It’s no trouble at all, really.”
Shiori feels her tummy grumble again and she tries to fight the warmth that threatens to bloom on her cheeks. There was no way she could deny being hungry any longer lest she makes an even bigger fool of herself so she agrees. “That would be nice…”
The admission causes Nerissa to grin perhaps a little too widely, “Go on and wait upstairs then, I’ll just grab some stuff then bring it up, is that okay?” Shiori nods without much else to say and Nerissa watches as the former makes her way up stairs.
As soon as she’s gone, the smile on Nerissa’s face drops and she lets out a heavy exhale, leaning back against the kitchen counter to support herself.
Taking a deep breath and letting her eyes flutter close, Nerissa gives herself a few precious moments to really process the recent events thus far. When she reopens her eyes, red orbs unconsciously flit over to the house telephone nearby. Only a few steps out of reach.
Nerissa gulps before shaking her head rapidly, not giving any room to ponder her previous thought by going to the pantry to grab food as she promised. She looks through the pantry and the cabinets but the issue of finding out what Shiori would eat or more specifically would like to eat proved to be a tough one.
She eats human food, right? It’s not like she’s a vampire… I mean the hair is sort of out of the ordinary but… wait, does she have allergies…? Surely she would’ve told me… would she even…
In her struggle to pick things out, an idea suddenly comes to mind.
That leads Nerissa to glide around the kitchen with practised ease as she grabs an entire loaf of bread, some simple ingredients for a sandwich and a packet of unopened pretzels until she can physically carry no more. Hoping what she had would be enough, Nerissa starts making her way upstairs herself while doing her best to hold on to all the food in hand.
When she reaches the top of the stairs, she finds the door to her room left slightly ajar and breathes out an involuntary sigh of relief. Nerissa pushes it open with her back and when she turns back around, she spots Shiori admiring the knick knacks on just one of her many shelves filled all kinds of other knick knacks.
“Interesting collection you’ve got here,” Shiori comments, her back still turned to Nerissa. “I didn’t think you were the type to keep a lot of things like this,” she adds as the latter goes to place the food on her desk. “They’re gifts,” Nerissa explains and Shiori nods, looking over at her with a heartwarming smile.
“That’s nice of you.”
“I’m the lucky one for getting all the gifts,” Nerissa laughs softly. She then gestures to the food whilst beckoning Shiori over. “Will this be okay by the way? I kind of just grabbed stuff,” Nerissa asks worriedly and Shiori reassures her that it was fine. More than fine in fact. After all they were snacks she snacked on often. Snacks that she liked.
“What about you though? Are you okay with me eating here in your room?”
Nerissa waves it off, while normally she’d avoid it, tonight seemed to be a night she made all kinds of different decisions she usually wouldn’t make. Might as well go the nine yards right?
“It’s nothing a little cleaning won’t fix,” she says as she takes a seat on her chair and Shiori lets out a hum, “I’ll try not to spill anything anywhere.” She looks for a place to sit and Nerissa taps the edge of her desk, an invitation Shiori accepts without much protest.
“May I?” Shiori asks as she grabs the unopened packet of pretzels to which Nerissa replies to go on ahead.
The next few minutes pass by quietly for the two with Nerissa making sandwiches and Shiori munching on pretzels, accepting the offering the former hands her wordlessly. Shiori mutters a quiet thanks and Nerissa responds in kind with a small smile. She glances at the loaf of bread on the table and while she usually wouldn’t eat so late at night, it was admittedly a little awkward to just watch Shiori eat.
So she begins making herself a sandwich while taking the chance to ask a few questions.
“If you don’t mind me asking, how did you up here?” she says, her eyes focused on her task. She hears Shiori hum, contemplative. “Simply put, I’m not actually supposed to be here. Landed here by accident.”
That causes Nerissa to raise a brow, looking up at Shiori for a moment who had nothing but a calm look on her place. As if crashing into the Earth as a shooting star was normal .
“By mistake…” she laughs softly, “Were you, world hopping, or something? Do you like, live in space among the stars?”
Nerissa honest to God doesn’t know if she’s joking but she says it anyways.
“Well, it’s much easier than that. Or not, I guess it depends on how you view things,” Shiori shrugs, taking another bite of her sandwich and choosing to finish before continuing. The wait leaves Nerissa feeling suspense.
“I was… let’s say, supposed to head home and let’s just say, I lost my footing leading me to end up,” Shiori gestures to the room with her arms, “Here.”
Nerissa feels the urge to prod further, to ask exactly what but she figures if Shiori purposefully left it out then it must be something she couldn’t share. So she moves past it. “Can you still get back home then?”
“I can,” Shiori assures and her tone matches her confidence. “I just needed the space and time away to regenerate, you know? I didn’t come out of a crater still looking good without a lot of effort,” Shiori jokes and Nerissa can’t help but laugh along.
“I was curious about that.”
“Don’t worry though, I’ll be out of your hair as soon as I can be.”
Nerissa feels her lips twitch, threatening to form a frown. “You could stay the night?”
Shiori shakes her head and Nerissa doesn’t push any further. She tries again with another question. “What about the authorities? Any reason why they’re after you?” Shiori rolls her eyes, “Your guess is as good as mine but I gotta say I’m not really that surprised.”
She picks at the hem of her dress, Nerissa watching her every moment whilst eyeing the details on her outfit alongside its intricacies.
“If I had to guess though, I guess they’re just curious. Scared? I don’t know. All I know is that everything, human or otherwise, tends to react drastically when faced with things they don’t understand.”
Shiori’s voice is thick with emotion, a feeling Nerissa can’t say she’s ever experienced herself.
And yet, she recognizes it. At least, some part of her does.
She pushes the thought aside for now.
Just as Nerissa opens her mouth to ask another question, the two of them jolt at the sound of heavy knocking on the front door. Nerissa feels her heart sink but forces herself to put the food aside and stand. She walks over to the singular window in her room first, overlooking the front of the house and she immediately spots a cop car.
Nerissa sucks in a breath through clenched teeth and her hands begin to sweat.
“Bad news?” Nerissa gulps and turns on her heels to face Shiori. “Stay here and don’t look out the window in case they see you,” Nerissa says over her shoulder as she walks past. She stomps her way back down the stairs and towards the front door, steeling herself for a moment before she answers.
“Officer, a surprise to see you here late at night,” Nerissa greets with her best voice. The officer gives a friendly smile or at least tries to. “Sorry for the disturbance ma’am. We’re just doing a little investigation and hoped you could give us a moment of your time?”
“Depends on what you have to ask,” Nerissa responds in a lighthearted tone if only to mask the edge in her voice.
“Have you happened to come across anything strange in the past hour ma’am?”
Nerissa quirks a brow. “Anything strange? I need you to be a little specific officer, what exactly do you consider strange?” Even without all that happened with Shiori, what kind of question is that?
“A strange accident happened not too far from here, hard to miss. We were wondering if you saw anything,” he informs, glancing over his shoulder and only then is Nerissa made aware of another officer present. Heavily armed and standing by her truck.
Nerissa feels a lump form in her throat. She shakes her head, “No I haven’t seen anything officer.”
The officer hums, “Is that true?”
“Yes officer.”
He clicks his tongue, laughing softly. “That’s funny. Would you care to explain then why when we searched the area, we found tracks very similar to your wheels over there?”
Nerissa’s eye twitches and she feels her breathing instantly become shallow as she racks her brain for an excuse. “This is my farm… would finding old tire tracks be so out of the ordinary–”
“Ma’am, they were recent. Within the hour.”
“…”
“We need to search your house ma’am.”
“What-!” Nerissa scrambles to grab a hold of the door knob, gripping it so tightly her knuckles turn white. “You can’t-! You need a warrant!” The officer stares at Nerissa but doesn’t push any further, instead only shrugging then turning to his partner and gesturing for him to get in the car.
“Right. Good night ma’am.”
As soon as the two officers pull out of her driveway, Nerissa bolts it back inside and up the stairs where she finds Shiori obediently seated at her desk. When Shiori looks at her, concern is written all over her face.
“What happened?” she asks. Nerissa runs a hand through her hair, feeling sweat already start to form on her skin. “Cops.”
“They’re looking for me?”
Nerissa nods rapidly. “Should I come down?” “Wha-?! No!” Nerissa exclaims, “They’re gone for now and what we need to do is get out of here.”
“We?”
“Yes we , I’m not just going to let them catch you!” Nerissa says incredulously to which Shiori responds with a sigh, her calm composure still intact much to the former’s chagrin. “Nerissa, as much as I appreciate the concern, there’s no need for you to be so concerned. You’re not ‘letting them catch me’, all I need is a little time and–”
Just as Shiori opens her journal and begins flipping through it, they hear the sound of tires screeching outside and the room gets bathed in a rotating mix of blue and red lights.
Nerissa chances another look out the window and her throat tightens the sight of several cop cars outside. She turns back around with panic thrumming in her veins only to be stunned at the sight she sees.
Shiori, with what appeared to be bookmarks floating around her. Many of them in the process of forming, dripping a black substance and incomplete.
Nerissa blinks, completely in awe at the display but the sound of very aggressive knocking on the door breaks her out of her trance and spurs her back into action. Despite the risk, Nerissa reaches out and takes Shiori’s hand, pulling the shorter girl along.
“Not here Shiori, we need to find a safer place.”
Nerissa curses under her breath as they make it to the bottom of the stairs, spotting the silhouettes of officers waiting outside the door from the windows. “Truck’s out of the question,” Nerissa clicks her tongue in frustration before guiding Shiori towards the kitchen. “There’s a window we can use to get out, come on.”
Reaching said window, Nerissa ever so carefully opens it and helps Shiori out first before stepping out herself. As soon as her feet touch the ground however, the front door busts open and the two spot officers making their way in as well as more officers coming from around both sides of the house.
“Found them! They’re here!”
“GO!”
Nerissa holds Shiori’s hand tight as they break out into a sprint, heading straight to the wooded area nearby in an attempt to try to lose the officers. In the midst of running, the bookmarks start to appear again and Nerissa tries not to let it distract her lest the both of them get caught.
That immediately proves to be a problem when they step into a clearing and spot more officers in the treeline ahead. When they try to turn around, more officers greet them and the realization quickly sets in that they’re surrounded.
Without hesitation Nerissa puts Shiori behind her to shield and protect her as best as she can.
“Ma’am, step away from the suspect,” one of the officers shouts loudly but it does little to deter Nerissa. Even when they train guns and point their flashlights at her, she stands her ground.
She feels a hand on her shoulder. “Nerissa–”
“Back off! She hasn’t done anything wrong!”
“Ma’am–”
“I’m serious!”
“Ma’am! Do not force us to–!”
“ Rissa. ”
The voice is soft. Barely audible. And yet Nerissa’s eyes widen as she turns around to see a bookmark right in her face, now completed. When she takes a tentative step back, she sees more floating in the air and Shiori standing in the middle of them all.
“Shiori…?”
Shiori gives her a warm smile. “Leave the rest to me,” she says softly, the barest hint of a smirk on her lips. “Thank you, for everything. Make sure to take care of yourself, okay?”
Nerissa can’t even muster the ability to speak from the shock so in lieu of that, she nods in response. Shiori lets the smirk on her face widen and she sends a wink Nerissa’s way before the black substance from before envelops her body.
In the blink of an eye, she disappears into thin air and the bookmarks left behind are sent outward, hitting all the cops in the vicinity. One by one, each of them disappear in a similar fashion to Shiori.
Nerissa watches in a mix of awe and slight fear and as the last officer disappears, a singular bookmark presents itself before her, hovering in place an arms reach away from her. A chuckle leaves Nerissa’s throat as she slowly reaches up to touch it.
She gently wraps her fingers around the bookmark, caressing it with the pad of her thumb before little by little, she feels her consciousness slip from her grasp.
__________________________________________________
Nerissa wakes up to the incessant beeping of her alarm. Loud and directly next to her ear.
A groan makes it past Nerissa’s lips and it takes a moment before she finally shuts said alarm off for some peace and quiet. She sits up whilst rubbing at her eyes, the familiar softness under her fingertips telling her she was on her bed. It takes another long moment before a thought finally forms in her head. When did I take a nap?
She lets out a loud yawn as she tries to push through the fuzz in her mind.
…when do I ever even take naps…
It rarely ever happened, no matter how tired she was so the fact that it did happen and on her bed no less? Nerissa was a little more than confused.
However, frankly too lazy to ponder the thought any further, Nerissa shakes her head and swings her legs over the side of the bed to stand, shivering as her feet come in contact with the cold floor below. Just as she’s about to leave and go downstairs, something in the corner of her eye catches her attention.
Specifically, something on her desk.
Curiously, Nerissa makes her way over only to find a bookmark she’s never seen before carefully placed right in the middle alongside a note. “A special gift from me…” Nerissa reads outloud, her brows furrowing at the initials written at the bottom.
SN.
The corner of her lips curl. “Back already hm…?”
Nerissa puts the note down and goes to inspect the bookmark. It had a simple harlequin print design that was mostly black in color with some hints of silver and dark gray. Then as a final touch, it had a dark purple ribbon tied at the top.
Even if it was relatively simple, Nerissa thought it was cute but then again, she was biased.
That doesn’t stop the way she smiles to herself, giddy like a kid on Christmas as she admires the gift. Before she gets the chance to find a nice place to keep it though, there’s a knock on the door.
Not thinking too much about it, Nerissa places the bookmark back down and goes to answer it. As she swings the door open, she’s greeted with the face of none other than her beloved Shiori Novella. The sight of her enough to place a big grin on Nerissa’s face.
Then a beat.
Wait.
“Woah bed head,” Shiori snickers, pushing up her glasses and leaning forward a little, “Did you take a nap ?” Nerissa blinks. “I…”
“Don’t remember?”
“...I honestly don’t know what happened…”
Shiori giggles as she makes her way past Nerissa, the latter moving to let her into the house. “When did you get back?” Nerissa blurts out involuntarily to which Shiori lets out an inquisitive hum, looking over her shoulder in slight confusion.
“What do you mean? I just got here.”
Nerissa’s gaze drifts off to the floor and her thoughts begin to run a million miles per minute. If it wasn’t her… “What’s going on Reese?” Despite the overwhelming questions, Nerissa comes back to herself and does her best to give Shiori a reassuring smile.
“Nothing, guess I’m still a little sleepy,” she says. Shiori gives Nerissa a once over and to the latter’s relief, chooses not to ask any further.
“If you say so,” Shiori mumbles as she goes to grab a packet of pretzels from the pantry. Nerissa stares as she does so and joins the other girl when she plops down onto the couch.
“How was work today?”
“The usual. Mostly quiet,” Shiori shrugs, taking a loud crunchy bite out of her pretzel, “But there was a little bit of a ruckus cause some kids were looking at online news or something so I had to quiet them down. Besides that though? Nothing much, you know the drill.”
Nerissa hums, leaning her head comfortably atop Shiori’s then letting out a pleased sigh. “I’m glad.”
“Don’t wanna get too stressed and have my hair turn white, you know?”
Nerissa rolls her eyes, briefly pulling away to look over Shiori’s black hair. “You’d look fine,” she argues and Shiori scoffs softly in response, “How would you know?” Nerissa chuckles but hesitates before giving her answer. “...I just do.”
Normally that’d warrant a tease from Shiori but it seemed she was feeling more than a little merciful today. She doesn’t even make a doesn’t sound, instead laughing a little louder.
“Thank you Rissa.” A pause.
“Is this to win back number one spot from that cat we saw last week?”
“Shiorinnn…” Nerissa whines.
“Cause if it is you know you’ll always be my number one wet–”
“I wasn’t that upset! It’s just that you spent so much time with it that I–”
Shiori bursts out into laughter, loud and carefree while Nerissa pouts ever so irresistibly. At least Shori makes up for it with a thousand and one kisses, the last of which she places right on Nerissa’s lips who is more than happy to settle down if it meant melting into it.
__________________________________________________
Shiori lets out a pleased sigh as she feels her body sink into her bed slowly, the feeling of finally being able to rest oh so blissful for her aching limbs.
The Archiver gets a few precious moments of peace before there’s a knock at the door.
“Shiorin?”
“It’s open,” she answers easily, not bothering to raise her voice so loud. Especially not when her guest is the Demon of Sound herself. The door creaks open before swiftly being closed back shut.
“Have you eaten yet?”
Shiori nods as best she can in her position, her eyes fluttering close. “Mhm, thank you for leaving some for me. Sorry I was late for dinner.”
A fond smile makes its way onto Nerissa’s lips as she joins Shiori on the bed, wasting no time in cuddling up next to the latter. “It’s okay, hiccup on your travels?” Shiori hums as her hand reaches up to comb through Nerissa’s hair.
“If you can call a hiccup nearly ruining all the timelines again, sure.”
Nerissa merely laughs, taking a hold of Shiori’s free hand to mindlessly play with her fingers. The feeling of her callous fingers always a welcome one against her own soft ones. “Again? Who was she with?”
“Wow, is that all you care about? Not the fact that I could’ve ended up trapped in a different timeline forever away from you and Advent? Wow Rissa.”
The demon rolls her eyes as she nudges Shiori in the side, light enough that it wouldn’t hurt but strong enough to be felt. “I knew you could handle it. Besides, I’m just curious. Who knows, maybe this one will be different,” Nerissa defends herself which earns a scoff from Shiori in return.
“Well to answer you, I didn’t run into her.”
“You didn’t?”
“No, it was you again,” Shiori laughs ever so softly, watching as strands of Nerissa’s hair fall between her fingers. “Seems like you’re always there to help me when these things happen.”
“Of course,” Nerissa replies boldly, “I think I can speak for all versions of myself when I say that I will always be there for you.”
“That’s not how it works Rissa.”
Nerissa lets out a cheeky laugh, grinning devilishly from ear to ear. “Uh, yes it does. You didn’t answer me by the way.”
“Oh did I not? Well it was pretty obvious they were living together–”
“They were roommates–?”
“ Which was pretty difficult considering alternate timeline Nerissa kept insisting I stayed over.”
Nerissa nods, very much like how a mother would nod in approval for their child. “She definitely had her priorities straight,” Nerissa comments smugly, which causes Shiori to roll her eyes and refrain from making several choice jokes. Maybe another time.
Momentarily managing to push them out of her mind, Shiori instead asks, “Why do you want to know so badly by the way?” Nerissa shrugs as she traces the creases and folds on Shiori’s palm.
“I don’t know honestly. Maybe I just think it’s adorable? Romantic? To know we find each other even in different timelines no matter the circumstances.”
Shiori hums, pulling Nerissa closer as her voice drops to just above a whisper. “Isn’t this timeline all that matters?”
“It is darling, don't get me wrong. I think it would just be cute, even if not entirely possible,” Nerissa whispers back and Shiori replies with nothing, letting silence wash over them for a time.
“You know… I am the Archiver.”
“I’m aware.”
“Technically speaking I could…”
Nerissa is confused at first, wondering where in the world Shiori was going with this but as the pieces fall into place, a wide smile appears on her face.
“Awe! Are you saying you’d change fate just for me? Shiorin~!” Nerissa squeals as she leans in to pepper kisses on Shiori’s face but the latter keeps her at bay even if the blush on her cheeks is hard to miss.
“Stop that! It’s not that big of deal-! Hey! This isn’t so different from me turning you back from becoming a moon is it?!”
Nerissa smirks as she pulls away to give Shiori a chance to breathe. “Uh yes it does actually,” she says and when she notices Shiori’s guard down, Nerissa wastes no time to steal a kiss from her. A light peck on the lips the latter doesn’t seem to mind giving.
“You’re such a dork.” Nerissa adds as she settles back into her place next to Shiori. “But you’re my cute little dork, my wittle Shiwowi, I love you~”
The Archiver rolls her eyes but she doesn’t think twice about placing a tender kiss on the Demon of Sound’s head whilst whispering her reciprocation, “Love you too.”
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“What was it like over there by the way?”
“Hm? Oh, you were a silly little farmer working on your adorable little farm.”
“A farmer ?! …at least one version of me gets her dream come true…”
“Dang…”
“Hey, I never said it was my favorite, did I?”
“Silly bird…”
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Fin.