Rei's Story Part 1

All you hear is the throbbing engine, the audible flutter of the valves through the exhaust, simply put, you drive.

The creme 1970s Chevrolet Malibu with a carbureted 454 big block and 4 speed manual is your baby, and has accompanied you on more quests than anything else you own, granted all you own fits inside said car. Born in Lastation, machines came natural to you, significantly more so than understanding people. Even though you were raised in the nation with the most “hands on” of the goddesses, there was a coldness about Lady Blackheart that you just felt from looking at her. The sensation turned you away from the goddesses, none of them seemed appealing enough for you to just stay in their nations and give your life away. So you joined the Guild and quested for the money to drive and live, not for any other purpose, no selfish glory or lasting legend, just what it took to fill your soul with the road.

The crisp fall night made the car sound all the more ferocious and the sharp wind would freeze you if not for the silver Guild jacket you wore. The jacket bore an “S” rank symbol, indicating your prowess as well as an embroidery on the back bearing the initials of people you could no longer adventure with due to their… departure from this world. They were missed, but not enough for you to cry is what you told yourself when the weight got uncomfortable.

The neon lights of your favorite diner drug you in like a fly, the waitress knew you by name and if you sat at the bar stools you would like: a Chicken fried steak with gravy and potatoes without you even having to pick up a menu. There was only 2 other people and you stopped outside and sat on the hood of your car for a bit, watching the moon rise into his holy throne in the sky. The rural parts of Gameindustri were beautiful like no description could properly provide. At one point, you might’ve held the hand of a nice young lady, a fellow adventurer at one point while looking at this view.

Those days were long gone now. It might’ve only been a few years but it felt like centuries.

The old man standing by his farm truck light up a cigarette. He offered you one.

You shake your head “no”.

“Good habit to not have, these damn things will kill me yet.”

“I see.” you respond with a faded smile.

The door ticks and rings as you enter, a familiar tune to your wandering bones. You pull a toothpick out of the dispenser near the entry and place it in your cheek. The usual waitress stands behind the counter, doing some dishes. For some reason, it takes far longer than it should for the presence of a pristinely dressed lady to be noticed, her thin framed black glasses complimenting a black suit with blue trim. The swath of faintly blued silver hair goes half way down her back, her diminutive figure is reminiscent of the guild leader IF.

The lady is sitting right next to your usual seat, so you just sit right next to her absentmindedly. For some reason, it feels tense to be close to this person. Just a phantom in your mind likely, you decide to give a shot at chatting with another person for the first time in ages.

“Nice night eh?”

The girl freezes with a bite of pancake on her fork.She freezes entirely, completely, absolutely, whatever descriptions you can think of and all at the same time. There is a sort of terror in her eye as she responds.

A drizzle of syrup falls while she attempts to recover.

“u-u-hh --- I suppose so…”

One of similar heart, it's refreshing to see such a mature appearing woman be so timid. You lock eyes for a brief moment before moving to speak again.

“So-”

SCREECH-

The metal feet of the stool scrape the floor as she stands up.

“I-I really must go.” she says abruptly.

The lady sprints out the door, it looked like her eyes weren’t even open she was trying to hard to get away.

“HEY COME BACK DAMMIT, YOU DIDN’T PAY” yells the waitress.

You sort of freeze, halfway between standing and sitting. You’re just watching the silver mane of that girl disappear into the night.

“Hey, you’re accepting quests right Driver?”

“Sure.”

“Well go get that girl, she ordered an expensive steak and drank like 2 pots of coffee so she owes me.”

“Alright, sign the line on my phone.”

You walk to your car and see her leaning against the dimly light sign at the very end of the cascade of light from the open windows of the diner. You hear sniffling noises, like someone crying. Your hands are in the zipper jacket pockets as you walk up to her.
“You gonna pay that restaurant or what miss?”

The girl stops sniffling enough to ask you:

“Y-You don’t h-hate me or a-anything?”

“Of course not, I have no clue who you are, let’s go back inside and pay that bill so you don’t get into any trouble.”

The girl nervously swallows, clearly mustering any semblance of courage she is capable of having.

“You don’t remember me fighting the...?”

“I don’t care, just follow along.”

The girl tugs at your jacket.

“Y-Y-Yo-u don’t? You don’t worship the CPUs?”

“Please let’s resolve this situation quickly. My personal beliefs do not matter in these affairs.”

The girl apologizes as much as her fragile heart will let her, she gives the waitress a giant tip and ends up having to pay for your meal as well. After a strict chastising, the suit wearing girl wanders over to you.

“Hey…”

You smile at her, if anything it should somewhat help whatever sort of bad night the lady is having. You can’t tell if it came off as genuine or not though.

“My-My name is R-Rei. Rei. Just Rei.”

You see a slight crystalline glimmer in her eye, a sort of logo that fades far too quickly for it to be recognizable.

“Si-Sir the waitress said you could- you could help me with stuff.”

“I guess so, what sort of stuff.”

Your professional front is saving you from responding to the air about this girl, something is just heart breaking.

“I-...” Rei trails off and sort of visibly slinks back into herself.

Rei leans forwards, only failing to cry by holding her eyes as wide open as possible.

“You- You didn’t make fun of me when- when I was crying…”

“Yeah?”

“You. You’re n-nice… uh…”

“You can call me Sir or Driver, Rei.”

“A lot of people make fun of me…”

Rei sips from the glass of water in front of her nervously.

“The- The waitress said you seem like you don’t have many friends.”

“So?”

“I…” Rei trails off so frequently it’s almost hard to keep track of what she wants to say.

After a long pause, with neither of you speaking, you notice that one of the three hanging fans is turned off.

“I don’t have many friends either… you need someone to… quest with?”

“I quest alone.”

The crystalline glimmer returns to her eyes, this time staying long enough for you to recognize a power button symbol.

“I-I did so much wrong. I have- I have to make it up somehow.”

“You’re a…” Dammit, you’re copying her now. Addressing her is getting difficult now that you have to be personable.

“I’ll think. About it.”

“Please. Just say. Yes.” Her eyes are pleading to you, it’s not an expression you can refuse. The sadness in her just flows.

It feels strange to have someone else in the car. There is another person breathing, thinking, and existing next to you. The amplifying growl of the engine tracks a whirring of metal and subsequent upshift as you return to the highway, the night overtaking everything but the cone of your headlights. You look over. Rei is asleep, her head pressed into the window. Her breath has caused a trail of condensation. It’s time to stop for the night.

You lean back in the seat, passing out for a uneasy few hours of rest.

The sun wakes you. The passenger door is open. Rei is gone.

It takes a moment to become fully aware of your surroundings.

Or rather, Rei is sitting on the hood, cross legged.

The sunrise paints the sky, ever slightly raising the cold blue haze from the cold North.

As you get out, the car door closing draws her attention.

“It’s… much easier to talk with no one else around.”

“I can understand that. I suppose I have a few questions before we get too far into a journey but let’s talk over coffee.”

A small camp stove burns you enough water for both of you to have a nice steaming cup in the crisp morning. Rei found your backup blanket and is wrapped up in it while blowing on the top of the boiling liquid.

“So you did something wrong, can you… tell me what it is?”

Rei freezes, face in the cloud that her drink is trying to make.

“I-I fought the CPUs… destroyed lots of Planeptune… ruined my…”

Rei’s coffee is going to get topped off by tears if you don't do something.

“Oi, you can stop if you don’t want to talk about it.”

You place a hand on her shoulder, immediate regret sets in but the girl enjoys the gesture.

“Thank you. Thank you Driver-san.”

It's a feeling you haven’t felt for such a long time. Someone thanking you and not giving you anything, just genuine thanks. It feels so real, so golden; More precious than anything else in the world. The tension still hasn’t faded from the interactions. It's a very real terror, despite the innate rootlessness of it.

“Let’s go, I know of a good quest for you but I’ve got a few stops to make first.”

Rei stands up and scans for a moment, the blanket makes her small frame looks quite a bit more intimidating to the deep recesses of your mind.

“I. I think Coleco used to be around here.”

“Huh?”

“One of, one of my old competitors.”

Rei turns and goes back to the car without speaking.

The roads feel and sound different in Lowee’s territory, the cold weather changes the familiar sounds of your car. The slightly rougher ride doesn’t phase you and the quiet keeps things amiable between you and your temporary party member.

Every time you check your passenger side window, you get a glimpse of the tiny woman, you can feel a sort of aura about her, between the way her black gloved hands are folded between her legs and the slumped shoulders. Something in the air just makes her beg for some sort of fulfillment, whatever it is, you don’t know.

“So, what weapon do you use Rei?”

Rei looks somberly out the window.

“I-I used to use magic… but I lost my. I lost most of my powers. I, I suppose - guess I could use a one handed sword.”

“Magic, were you good at it?”

Rei’s pupils shrink to pinpoints, if her hair wasn’t in the way you were sure that the vein on her neck would be bulging.

“The best, the absolute best. I united this continent of Gameindustri. My nation was the most powerful of any nation ever. Period.”

Her eyes soften, you can feel her relax just observing.

“I- I messed up. The uh, CPUs made me realize that. I used to blame it on my- my people.”

Rei’s eyes become watery, she’s impressively quick to cry.

“I messed up. Thats all- Thats all I do.”

A single tear rolls down her cheek.

“I- I guess if all I’m good at is breaking things and hurt- hurting people, I should do that to- to bad people, maybe some- something good will happen to me.”

=====================================================================

Rei didn’t sound like a girl that had much luck in life, even if you felt a sort of net holding you back from honestly feeling what she put out, it was still saddening to see. If Fate could kick Rei any more, its leg would be tired.

As you had said to Rei, you had a few small things to get done before you could help her, she had insisted upon riding along. First stop was a Guild outpost that needed the crate of supplies in your trunk.

The morning light makes driving easy, the sun fills you with life and warmth after the crisp wakening.

The sparse trees of the rolling hills and plains made for little to look at, but the road was a nice feeling, smooth. Your car was simply rolling about the miniature valleys and peaks. Rei’s light breathing reminds you of her presence.

A sign indicating the distance to various landmarks passes by before your reply.

“Sounds like a plan.”

The field is huge and predictably filled with little blue dogoos. Rei is petrified by their numbers. You get her attention and slowly pull her towards one of them.

“Now draw your sword and slash it!” you tell her.

You can see the end of the simple steel blade shake with the rest of her until something happens. A switch flips in her mind, you can see the difference in her personality. The sword and Rei are a flurry of action, seemingly instantly obliterating the target you gave and another 2 dozen dogoos. As Rei slows down, you can see the sword emit a terrifying blue fire that sweeps another 10 into blue pixels. As the ping goes though, you can see Rei change back, her knees nearly falling out from under her as she meanders back towards you.

The lady collapses. Your phone pings a complete quest tone.

You get to her as fast as possible, using a shoulder to pick her up by trading arms over the other’s shoulder.
Rei weakly speaks.

“I did good Driver-san?”

“I think you might’ve overdone it a bit.”

“I- I can walk, I just haven’t used my SP in such a long time. I’m out of practice.”

“You sound more confident Rei, I think you can handle that quest I was talking about.”

“Wawa-wait that was a quest?”

“Yes it was. Not the one I was talking about though.”

The girl’s weight slowly lifts off your shoulder and she starts walking on her own, Rei looks embarrassed to have touched you.

“Did. Did I do good?”

“Very.”

Rei’s figure balls up a bit but she looks happy, her expression makes it seem like there’s always something on her mind.

“Thank you for taking me along.” says Rei with conviction.

You return to the car, your arm is still buzzing from that moment of human contact.

=====================================================================

The cold mornings are all the same but still rejuvenating, waking up in a leaned back car seat is an all too familiar feel for you. As you wake, Rei is missing again. You figure she’s just around so you go about your routine, drinking coffee and cracking a few hard biscuits under some simple gravy.

You hear a ghostly sound, only describable as the flutes of the dead. The song is beautiful.

To your tired mind, it seems no big deal to investigate.

You reach the top of the foggy mound on the side of the road, seeing a figure next to a tiny stream.

You stop and listen, the song is sad and long.

The song grows louder as you approach, the figure becomes more visible and significantly more scantily clad.

“Rei?!?” you call out.

A loud splashing is followed by more splashing and a subsequent squealing.

Rei screams at you:

“Turn around! Just for a second!”

The diminutive lady is in front of you with wet hair nearly spontaneously.

“Y-yyyou Pervert!”

“I was just looking for you. At least I yelled at you.”

The white dress shirt crumples as Rei balls up a bit.

“Your song is…” You hesitate. Isn’t complimenting her on this a bit far?

Rei turns bright red.

“Y-you. Heard.”

“Come on, I’ve got some breakfast for you.”

You’ve never seen someone so meekly eat, Rei obviously didn’t want her song to be heard. You made this situation worse by not just upright saying how you felt. You sigh and pinch the bridge of your nose, preparing to speak. Rei tightens up a bit just from those two little motions.

“The song was beautiful.”

“D-d-on’t… talk about it.”

Rei starts tearing up a bit.
“I-I’m sorry. I just liked your voice.”

Rei holds her head down, a hand restrains one side of her hair and rests on her neck.

“I… I sung that song to keep my mind off things a long time ago. I was just rinsing my clothes and… out there.”

“Isn’t it a bit cold to be bathing?”

“I,- I don’t mind much… at least I’ve got water and food. Cold is. Cold is one of the least of my worries.”

Her slight shiver and goosebumps say differently but you let her be.

You leave Rei to sulk for a bit, skipping through the various high priority, top security deliveries you have to make takes a bit of time and gives you an excuse to be apart from her. You place the small steel container back in the trunk and turn, seeing Rei donning her perfect black coat. She reaches in a pocket and pulls out a horn-esque hair ornament, only to throw it past the burm and walk as angrily (though soon subsiding) as this form of Rei can to the car.

=====================================================================

The Lowee Guild post has more than enough quests, almost too many. The resident CPUs pay little attention to their own people mostly due to the Candidates’ young age and White Heart’s reclusive nature.

“This one.”

Rei peeks over your shoulder at the terminal. It’s a request from a beleaguered village for relief from the unusually high concentration of recent monster spawns. The request is ranked B, so it shouldn’t be too hard for you to see what Rei can do.

Tap Tap. Rei’s little finger hits your shoulder blade.

Rei has a scared look and points much lower on the list, finger hovering over a  E rank quest for Invaders.

“We already did a low rank quest to see your skills, let’s move up.”

“I-I-ff you... insist...”

Rei’s hands are folded between tightly closed legs, for once you find it difficult to relax while driving. The pressure becomes so significant that you stop the car and try to talk to her.

“Rei.”

“Y-Yes Driver-san-san?

Rei covers her mouth with a hand.

“Forgive me-m-me, being on a quest is spooky. Fighting something is scary...”

It would do you well to not be professional right now, but it's not something that you can help.

“Rei. I was new once as well, I’m sure you will do well. If you use magic or a sword you must calm yourself so you do not make mistakes or lose concentration.”

Rei grabs the sleeve of your jacket.

“Th-Thank you… I’ll try my b-best.”

Rei’s hand lingers on your arm for a moment, it looks like she wants to say something. Despite this, she remains silent and her arm eventually goes slack and then returns back to her lap.

Rei blushes as she lets go, you can see the swelling pride in her as she bows a bit while thanking you. Rei’s long bangs fall over her eyes as she bows, her eyes are little gems but watery as they peek out from underneath the pale blue hair. Her gloved hands are together even after she straightens up, but slowly shift from her chest to her lap.

“Driver-san, It-”

Rei looks aside with a bright red face.

“What?”

“It feels nice to be aroun.. I mean, a good person.”

“Of course.”

Rei looks away.

=====================================================================
It’s a long way to Lowee, and with a dozen stops, even if quick and connected you spend two solid days on the road, Rei seems to recover from that morning quickly. She refuses to tell you what the horn ornament was about but seems to softly and silently enjoy visiting all the important Guild members that you hand off packets of information to, from single envelopes to mysterious legal boxes and PDAs.

The strum of the engine decides by holy wish to delete whatever it chooses from your memory, the feeling is wonderful for some bizarre reason.

Rei sort of teeters in her seat, she stares out the window at the ever changing landscape and occasionally peeks at you. Eventually, she gives in to the wait and falls asleep against the window, barely breathing.

The trees in Lowee are evergreens, huge and proud, a very visible change from the leafy boughs of the other nations. They skip past your windows in scales of the deepest greens, browns and all the other rich colors that build the glorious landscape of nature. It's a comforting sight, one you always enjoy when journeying through the world.

Thunk.

Your car hops over a little frost heave, jolting Rei awake from her nap. The cyclic freezing and thawing of water makes roads in these wintery regions quite a bit more rough than others, but nothing that isn’t bearable. Rei fixes her glasses and sleepily looks around, soon settling against the window again.

Maybe you should just dump her at the Guild after this, leave before you get too attached. The temptation to keep her around is intense, but you have a rule that you made for a reason. Dating another Guild member is strictly off limits to you, especially after the last time, no exceptions.

Why.

Why would you do that. Rei said it herself, you’re the only person that’s been nice to her. She isn’t weak like the last girl, you won’t lose Rei like that, just randomly running off into a dungeon ahead of the party and getting slain by some powerful mini-boss.

Rei is…

Rei.

Special, a little soldier in her diminutive frame, she’s kept on going for such a long time after so many mistakes that filled her heart with so much regret and awful emotions. You remember how she held onto you after she beat the hell out of those dogoos, and before when she was nervous. She didn’t collapse because she was super tired, rather she wanted a way to get close. Something already clicked between you two, and it was terrifying. You’ve only ever tried dating one other girl and she promptly died after, what on earth are you supposed to do with an ancient CPU?

Your only other was a short relationship. It felt so real though. So permanent. You really shouldn’t get so sidetracked while driving.

You start to downshift and slow the car, monsters are visible and risking your car is not an option.

“Rei!”

Rei’s bangs sort of hop as she jumps in her seat, quickly waking. She fixes her again askew glasses and notices the variety of enemies blocking the road and filling the nearby environment.

“Are we going to stop sir?”

“Yes, remember we have a lot more fighting to do here, don’t tire yourself out.”

The car makes its last grunt as you come to a stop, you retrieve a 1 ½ hand sword and set it to your belt, pulling armor over your forearms and hands. Rei walks up to you, one hand balled up over her throat, clearly trying to say something before turning around with a flushed face. She finally manages out:

“Good luck.”

“Hey, we’re a party, we’ve got to stick together.”

Rei turns and nods. The village has ramshackle defenses set up all across the edge of their town, you guess that it would be easiest to just follow them and clear out the enemies as you go. The first battle begins.

A crystal golem’s arm smashes onto you, only stopped by the flat of your sword. The sword whips back, following your stance as you charge it with lighting magic for another strike. The crystal body melts cleanly into a mess as you thrust, launching blue pixels out. Rei has light her simple weapon with the same blue fire as earlier and has made a mess of hordes of less fortunate minions. The scorched metal quickly gives way to showers of blue pixels and Rei laughs maniacally before launching a tremendous fireball from her left hand. A dark shadow follows the fireball and snaps back to her, forming a cross between a wing and an arm. The shadow whips about and covers her back as she jumps and dives into a mini-boss, plunging her sword through its abdomen.

Given her behavior and actions, it seems like there’s two Reis, the fragile little lady that exists everyday and then the savage, insane warrior who lives for battle. It’s a bizarre contrast but it works, Rei seems to be enjoying herself while making short work of the horde. It seems no matter how fast you fight, Rei is outpacing you.

The way the fight just carries on is impressive, Rei has no trouble dragging you across half the perimeter throughout the course of a few hours. The sun begins to set as Rei returns to you, tired and hungry.

“How about we go back to the car and get some stew, Rei.”

“Driver-san, the village might have been under siege but I’m sure we could…”

“What Rei?”

Rei’s face turns crimson, she’s just sort of babbling to herself for a moment before she realizes that she isn’t being understandable.

“L-loook, never- never mind- I- I’ll go alone.”

Rei runs into the village, she’s surprisingly quick. What would you be doing if you didn’t follow her.

The village is a bit ravaged but Rei didn’t make it very far. There’s a collection of villagers heaping praise onto her, she's pressed in the middle of a crowd of people and very visibly about to panic.

“Rei!” you call out.

You can see the panic in her eyes and she sort of squeezes towards you through the mass of people. The moment she breaks from the mob she charges towards you and…

Sinks into a hug.

The voices get muffled, all you notice are Rei’s watery eyes and her little hands on your back. Time feels like it freezes, you’re not quite sure what to do. It hurt so much to lose last time. Is Rei worth trying again, risking yourself?

You can feel the break between heartbeats.

Sigh.

Rei steps back in shock almost instantly, you barely keep her from running away by grabbing her arm, soon feeling your contact slipping down to only the sleeve.

She’s whispering at you, even without barely being able to speak she is still in a panic.

“Dddddd-drive-driver no- I- why- no- help- please- this---”

“Rei. Please cal-calm down, I’ve. I think I…”

The villagers cut off your perfect little moment, soon rushing you two with comments of your being a cute couple and a million other things that drive Rei into uncontrollable flight, soon dragging you into a small shop.

Both of you catch your breath in the shadowy corner of the convenience store, Rei falls into another hug, you two concealed behind a giant rack of magazines and maps.

“Rei, I think-”

“Si-Sir, I-”

Rei looks down, her shoulders drop and you can see her eyes change.

“I- I’ve never even had - had a boyfriend... “

“Rei- I, I could…”

Rei is uncomfortable speaking like this, you can see it in her face.

“I-I thought you … you didn’t like me…”

“Rei. You’re. Cute.”

Rei’s whole face is flushed, she’s tearing up as she pulls herself into your grasp, something about her small figure just makes you want to hug her. She sniffles a bit but starts crying giant tears of joy.

“I… heard this in an anime… can I call you something else Driver-san?”

“What are you thinking of?” Your heartbeat is in your throat.

Rei fiddles with your hand and hers for a bit.

“…”

Rei clutches your hand, her impressive grip strength is nothing like her tiny body would suggest.

“Y-y-ou’re my H… hon-honey.”

It brings a smile to your face, even though you can feel that you’re blushing as well and should be screaming from the nervousness.

Rei tries again with conviction, this time:
“You’re my sweetheart.”

You can see that Rei wants to ask you something.

“Yes?”

“Us… We… We’re a… Couple?”

“I-I guess.”

Rei’s shy, slumped posture returns.

“We can… after mission?”

“A… Date?” you ask.

Rei nods quickly.

The moment. You have to, there isn’t an option anymore. Rei was willing to extend herself this far, time for you to go.

“Sure.”

Her stomach grumbles, you came in here for what you thought was food. Now you’ve got an expectant lady wishing for romance from you. The village is largely deprived of food so two cans of chili and a bag of tortilla chips is all you get between the two of you. As you get back to the car, Rei makes you sit down and quickly steals a crate from the nearby makeshift wall. She places a tiny white candle in the middle and sets a towel down. She sits on the cloth and pats it, motioning for you to sit with her. The tiny camp stove sits beside the candle, heating your chili.

The quiet is nice and Rei’s silky suit impresses a kindness on your side. While you’ve been daydreaming, Rei has been trying to work up the courage to do something, you’re not quite sure what.

“D-driver- I mean. Sweetsir- oh…. Sweetheart.”

“Rei?”

“Hand.”

“What?”

Rei’s fingers creep between yours, firmly wrapping over the webbings, her little nails are visible on the top of your hand. Your hands are intertwined on the rough edge of the crate but all you feel is each other. Both Rei’s and your heartbeat are in hand.

“Oh! No No No!”

Rei nearly jumps to the pot of chili, saving it from burning.

“L-Lets eat… first sir.”

Rei is turning red just staying close to you, she starts biting on her left hand nails.

“An-anything else Rei?”

“This is this- is neog-ugh- enough.” Rei tried speaking through a nervous gulp.

A moment of courage. It’s all you need. All you can hear is your heartbeats racing for the some of the longest minutes of your life.

“Rei.”

Rei looks surprised.

“Wha?”

“Your dinner is getting cold.”

“Oh. o-of course.”

She eats a bite, but stops before another.

“I-I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier.”

“Tell me about?”

“In the village square, I confessed I liked you…”

“You weren’t really speaking clearly.”

Rei looks horribly sad. She pulls herself to your arm, leaning into your shoulder.

“I-I tried… I…”

“Say it again… try again Rei.”

“I… I’ve liked you from the start… I didn’t know why. What you just. You just did it again. Gave me a chance.”

“I think I got the idea. Even if you didn’t talk the first time.”

Rei smiles, the rays could illuminate space with the most brilliant of colors. You let her be for a bit. She realizes that she’s absolutely beaming and hides her smile with a hand modestly.

“Do you- like me too?”

You can feel the rock in your throat, trying to choke the words back.

“Would it… make it easier…?” Rei squeaks out.

You two are frozen in the other’s eyes, Rei pulls herself together for a moment.

“I-I trust you. I think… I…”

At the same time, for some reason only the universe could have understood, you both say at the same time:

“Love you.”

You both nervously laugh, but you can feel that the girl has attached herself to your side.

“Y-You mumble at me sometimes too. It’s kinda. Cute too.” says Rei with a thick blush under her eyes.

Dinner is over in an instant. Rei holds your hand as she falls asleep. Your heart is still racing, you watch her sleep for a bit. Watching her small, slowly rising and falling upper body soothes you for some reason.

Even if she’s asleep, you unconsciously think and say:

“Maybe good things will happen.”

Rei smiles.

[end part 1]