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As tonelico,
(totally not stressed by the fact that failing to convince less than half of the powerful peoples currently in the room in front of her would assuredly be a death sentence to the hito program)
Proceeded in explaining the intricacies (mostly of what she understood) of the last invention they'd decided to present that day,
a device that could allow to leave the planet's atmosphere, the "rocket",
to much her relief, ended in somehow of a standing ovation as the perspective that all these awe inducing technologies she presented offered for their whole planet's future.
(mostly about the rocket thingy, they promptly forgot about the other inventions that felt way too unattainable for them at the moment)
A non-negligible step forward in their world's evolution and hopefully, in finding a way to halt, maybe even solve, the global cooling issue.
Tonelico was ecstatic, as much as the Dr.Drill was adamant in repeating to her that no matter how convinced investors said they were, they, the scientist team, were still technically running on borrowed time, her sheer enthusiasm and relief at this small victory couldn't help but eat away at her worries, nothing could stop her being excited for once, if only for a short while.
Hitoshi just laughed with his oh so melodic voice as he patted the excited tonelico with a smile, she might've purred a little, who knows.
A short while that was, as the bliss dissipated and it all dawned on her, that night,
She thought back in bed about how much she aced the presentation (with the help of hitoshi of course), she was able to instill every emotion she wanted on their faces, she even got to sat on his lap, though his hand in her hair patting her head made it quite distracting and difficult to focus on what she was saying--...
She sat on his lap..
He patted her head..
he even...held her...
...
Clearly he only did as such not to let me fall and/or make a fool out of myself, how thoughtful of him.
Besides, it's not the first time we did something like that.
She thought as she pulled the blanket higher over her head,
nothing to lose sleep over.
She closed her eyes
...
...
...
GAAAH WHAT AM I EVEN TALKING ABOUT, I WRAPPED MY TAIL AROUND HIM she screamed internally externally, thrashing uncontrollably in her bed, the blanket meekly thrown away in a corner of the room.
She was so focused on the presentation that she sat on his lap, as if it was a normal thing to do, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, even, in front of a hundred of the most important people in the world, how could she had sounded credible???
...
she regrets not having been more focused on enjoying it more while it laste--WHAT AM I EVEN THINKING RIGHT NOW----
...
She calmed down.
"....I am just doing it in the name of friendliness, in the name of a good, healthy relationship between our species, Indeed, it could be catastrophic if the hito finds himself to be rejected (even more than he currently is) by our people."
'rejected'
...
She rested her hand on her strongly beating heart, that somehow felt like it had crumpled away in the span of a single second.
...hated would've been a better word for it,
as much as some people were in support of the hito's presence on their planet, most were still adamantly against it.
Yet,
now is not the time to be gloomy.
She shook her head.
Hitoshi remained so hopeful, always so hopeful, how couldn't she, when all the odds were against him, not her,
if he left, she could continue to live her life like nothing happened, feeling empty for the remainder of her small life ? Maybe, but she could still live, but he? If the hito program went wrong in any way, shape or form, all the people that want him gone would not hesitate a single second to use it as ammunition to have him gone for good,
so she could only do the same as he and remain hopeful.
Dammit, she made herself sad now, she waited for the awful feeling to go away, for the idea of getting her purpose ripped from her to fade and disappear as if even the idea had never existed in the first place and soon enough, somehow, her mind wandered back to 'the incident'
"..Besides, he did not mention it afterwards, was it to be kind to me? To not embarrass me further?"
No, she already came to the conclusion that he patted her of his own free will afterwards (though she was sure that she was the only one that enjoyed it as much as she did) so did he do it to be more than nice during the presentation, could his hand touching her hold as much significance to him as it did to her?
His hand oh my god his hand, the feeling of it on her head, the scratches, the caresses, the way he smiles at her during the whole thing, the pleasant buzz that always follows,
Everything,
Even the anticipation of this devil's apparatus was thrilling nowadays.
"SHUT UP" she screamed (internally (for real this time))
Tomorrow's gonna be an even bigger and exciting day.
Night.