Moving Hearts and Time

Azure could still remember it, slipping off the Mask, looking at Signe unobscured, the hug, the crying. It was only literally yesterday but it had been playing on repeat. Every day in the war she thought that she might die or that it go on so long and Signe would be married off somewhere she would never see her again. Then there was what felt like an eternity in that...nothing? No The Fearless called it a Time Stream,it was time. She would see flickers of things she didn't understand? Were they of her in other worlds, of Queen Azure, of Signe, of random events? It was hard to remember.

The princess rubbed a spot on her arm that she got slashed with a weird black blade with. The vampire had mentioned something about Queen Azure, could the whole thing have been a trap, what was the point if it was? She didn’t see where it would benefit her unless she thought she could...Oh she wanted to capture them and get the treasures ideally if that was the case.

Anyway, Azure grabbed a box of her things which there weren’t many after her zoning out and took it inside of Signe’s place, they had to wait until the sun was down due to Signe’s whole being a vampire thing but she was just so happy to be moving in. Jill, Rin, Serena and everyone who shifted in from the Sparkle System were all really nice about moving out. They managed to get a call through to The Fearless from their training with an actual god!!!

Azure was such a huge fan of them, they said they were going to gift her all of Sailor L when they were back as a moving in present and Elena then said she was going to make a meal plan for Azure so that she couldn’t die.

There Azure went again getting distracted, her mind was wandering, she hadn’t expected it to go down like this at all. She had the image perfect in her mind of Signe rejecting her, of being told she was bound to be some evil queen and that she wanted nothing to do with her. Yet, that isn’t what happened, actually Signe and her just had a big moment.

The sword lesbian grabbed her collection of blades she had quickly got thanks to Saint Smithton’s scholarship for her. Azure asked “Signe, where should I put my swords? I know modern homes don’t come with armouries”

“Hmm, I was thinking we could mount them on the walls some time, but for now I suppose you can put them in the study?”

One of the rooms in Signe’s, and now also Azure’s, new apartment was the study, a room with a writing desk, and multiple bookcases, shelves, and cabinets featuring various eclectic items and books from Signe’s travels, which included but was not limited to: various trinkets she had taken from crusaders she had killed, famous books of science like Newton’s Principia Mathematica, a book on the inner anatomy of vampires written in the Islamic Golden Age which Signe modelled for, a handkerchief she swears once belonged to Julie d'Aubigny, and of course her most treasured possession of all: a signed copy of Sheridan la Fanu’s Carmilla.

“Yeah, the study should work for now; I’ll find some wall mounts for them soon. The study is getting a bit crowded after all.” Signe had thought of asking Ryan to take a look at what she had, so they could take some of it back to the museum, and clear up some space.

Azure’s eyes were lit up, sparkling in amazement at the study. She put down the swords in the study then immediately ran to hug Signe and said “Wow this is so amazing, I know how much you wanted to collect stories! These modern eras books are very interesting too! They remind me of telling stories to you by a fire.”

She let go of her best friend/girlfriend, maybe, it was not a title of her time, there was infatuation surely but there was simply lover, engaged, married, concubine or mistress statues. The dating thing was a new concept to her although the way Serena had described it to her made it make sense to her. SCP had also told her something about camping but that was lost in the metaphor for Azure. There was total excitement still on her face, she just felt so happy that Signe had something she had wanted for so long in her life now even if at this point it probably felt mundane.

Signe giggled, returning and enjoying the hug. “I know, right? It was fun to travel around and hear and read various stories. There’s been a lot over the ages since you were last around. Many have sadly been forgotten, but of those that remain, I hope to share some of them with you,” Signe looked into Azure’s eyes, blue meeting blue. “Especially the really gay ones.” she said, wiggling her eyebrows and chuckling.

Azure giggled, faint blush on her dark skin, eye to eye locked onto her. She said with determination in her voice “I will write a story, a really gay one that will become a new favorite for you. After all, I have to make up for the lack of stories in all these years.I have much more competition now.”

The princess was excited to read the styles of stories that Signe enjoyed. She had read some things that Serena owned and a few books that The Fearless owned but Signe’s collection was most important to understand if she were to defeat all these tale tellers and create a story Signe will love. Not that she wasn’t going to tell Signe stories still, obviously she would just she would have a master work as well.

Signe smiled brightly. “I am looking forward to it. I *have* really missed your stories. And your determination. And your company. And honestly everything.” Her pallid face showed no blush that could betray how nervous she was when finally admitting it to her best friend from her years being alive.

“So uh, where do you want to sleep? I have a room with a bed and a closet right now, I had planned it to be kinda like a guest room, but if you want your own space, it’d be good for that. But,” Signe paused for a bit, as she pondered her next words, “the bed in the bedroom is plenty big for, you know, the both of us. If you want.”

Azure was so happy to hear that, she had worried everything about her would seem so, was the word retro or old fashioned? English was so complicated but it was one or the other. She smiled at Signe and said "I also missed you so much! I got so many tales from the war to tell you but also so many ideas I've had for stories."

She didn't seem to blush at the suggestion of sharing a bed but she did look thrilled at the idea "oh yes, we used to share a bed all the time whenever we saw each other. I wouldn't want it any other way! That is if I don't end up disturbing your sleep."

“How would you disturb it?” Signe asked. “Not that I have any kind of mortal sleep to disturb anyway. Being nocturnal and all, I might not even be in bed at night unless you wanted the company.”

“I have nightmares, Serena told me, I worry I’ll be too loud in my sleep but maybe the nightmares will stop now that I’m with you!” Azure admits with an optimistic tone.

Then Azure grabbed Signe’s hands “I would love for you to be around but I could become nocturnal, I don’t sleep much anyway. You know, enemies could attack at any moment so we needed to be light sleepers.”

At first Signe’s eyes opened in shock upon hearing Azure had nightmares, but slowly her look became more sorrowful as she reasoned why. Azure had spoken a bit about what happened both before and after her disappearance, and there was plenty of things that could still affect her.

As she held Azure’s hands, Signe brushed her thumb over the back of Azure’s hand in an attempt to soothe her. “I don’t think you need to become nocturnal. I’m still awake even in the day after all, and you need your sleep. Even if you have trained to sleep lightly.”

Signe looked into her eyes again. “If me being there with you will stop the nightmares, that would be good. But regardless, I will be there for you, ok?”

Azure wondered if The Queen slept, if she dreamt, what nightmares she had, if her life was like hers but then she saw...everything perish, no she was evil, she probably felt nothing.

Azure felt calm in Signe’s eyes and she teased “Good, I am glad you’ll be there for me then, I wonder if your eyes will turn that pretty Red when you watch me.”

Signe’s girlfriend moved in closer “I guess I’ll have all my human needs you have to deal with but I’m happy to help with whatever you need as a vampire! Blood is one of them right, I’d happily consent if that was the case.”

Signe’s eyes, as if teasing back, turned into the said ‘pretty’ dark blood red. “Blood is indeed one of my needs, but maybe we’ll get to that once you’ve settled in. Perhaps instead you can help with another one of my needs? Which is that I really want to kiss you right now?” The vampire gave a cheeky smile.

Azure didn’t hesitate putting her arms around Signe she kissed her leaning up on her toes to reach the lips with more ease. The princess saw the queen on TV who was taller than Signe she wondered if she had another growth spurt to look forward to but she was happy to just be kissing her right now. Breaking the kiss she said “Any time you want help with that I’ll provide it.”

“And same to you, my princess~” Signe giggled, as she chased back her lips into another kiss, her arms hugging around her back.

Azure’s arms rested on Signe’s back, it seemed like this year was going to be the best year of her life after all. When she was with Signe it was so easy to forget everything else, the fear and the pain, the tale of Queen Azure. When she was with Signe, life was a romance novel where she didn’t need to carry all those burdens. Whatever tests she would face, there is no way she would fail with Signe there beside her.

\_\_\_

“You know, whenever I’m standing in a kitchen, I always ask myself ‘what would Elena do?’ And I know the answer is usually to advise me to kindly leave before I do something disastrous, but in this case it might be to start with something small?” Signe said to Azure as they stood in the kitchen of the apartment. Neither knew very much about modern kitchens, one because of a lack of need to eat and the other because of time-travel. Signe was pointing to a small appliance she didn’t know was a toaster. In her defense she had asked Elena to fill the kitchen with stuff.

Azure squinted at the toaster “I believe this is for placing a small piece of food in and then watching it become hot? I could make a sandwich and put it in there?”

She poked the device moving the dials heat up to the symbol with a little fire on it “fire, like cooking with fire, like we used to do, that seems pretty simple.”

The princess from the iron age was pretty sure she understood it and started grabbing random foods she enjoyed the taste of. Elena did say a sandwich is one or more foods that pair well between multiple pieces of bread. That seemed really easy, she could impress Signe with how good at cooking food she was despite only ever having made Signe’s favorite with her mother a few times as a kid.

Peanut butter, ham, maple syrup and uncooked bacon go between two slices of white bread and she said “I think this looks good, I like all of these flavors, now to just toast it. Should I do the honors of allowing the fire box to do it’s magic?”

“All yours, my princess. Seems you already have a good handle on things,” Signe said looking impressed, unaware of the several problems with the sandwich.

Azure stuffed the sandwich into the toaster, it fit a bit tightly but that is what it was for, perhaps people put a few less things in their sandwich but it hardly be a meal with less right? She pulls on the toaster’s little go down thing or whatever it was called and waited watching as smoke came up from the toaster. She asked “Signe, does this look right?”

“Fire usually produces smoke, seems right to me. According to Elena, we only need to worry if the smoke detector goes off,” Signe says as the smoke detector starts to go off, and the toaster spits out fire. “Hmm, damn,” she says and grabs one of several small fire extinguishers she was told to stash. “Ok, stand back a bit?” she tells Azure before blasting the toaster.

Azure looked determined, pointing at the toaster “You may have defeated me this time Toaster, but I shall best you one day!”

Then rubbing the back of her head nervously she asked “Should I do the take out instead today? It is amazing that now personal chiefs will bring anyone food, I have an application for this and everything.”

Signe nodded. “Probably a good idea. Halcyon should have a lot of interesting food to offer from what I’ve heard, not that I’ve needed to know,” she said, as the toaster finally dinged, bringing up with some weird looking sludge from the burnt food and fire extinguisher foam. “Do you think I could replace that without Elena noticing?”

Azure mused looking at the mess a bit ashamed of herself  “I mean the reaction couldn’t be any worse then if she saw what it actually looked like now.”

She grabbed her phone, that was tech she managed to understand, after all she was determined to be able to read things online and use the long distance letter machines.The princess tapped on the delivery app ordering herself some shrimp pad thai to enjoy. Azure asked “I should avoid doing this too much, The Owlnights said I can use their credit card but I do not want them to be indebted to the merchants.”

"Yeah, but doing it for a couple of days is probably fine..." Signe said. Looking over at the mess, she continued "...and necessary for now. And you can also use my credit card if you want, I've got some funds accrued over the centuries." She pulled out her phone to see where she could buy a new and hopefully similar toaster.

"You are already doing so much for me, I do not wish to deplete your funds" Azure said worried about being a burden but then thought about taking that sweet woman who took her in's money she knew she wasn't in a fantastic position to not burden anyone.

The princess remembered that Maria drew her a map of buried money they hid away from robberies and selling stolen goods because *"like I'll trust the banks with my money."* Perhaps that was a solution but it really would be simpler to accept Signe’s kindness and perhaps find a method of gaining coin herself.

Signe giggled. “It’s good to be careful with money, but don’t worry, it’s not like take-out and other such stuff can deplete them. Besides, I want to support you while you adapt to this new time. And I’m sure the Owlnights do as well. After all, the treasury of the Arondite Kingdom would be pretty difficult to access right now.”

Azure mused, thinking about her life situation as it was now “It is so strange, I lived my whole life as a princess with all the sorted luxury and duty but now I lack both the duty and the royal status in the eyes of the people. I’ve grown used to it already, plus I had not exactly had royal treatment in the war, I stood by everyone as a fellow warrior and led the charge in every battle. Life in 2021 surely beats camping in a year-long war campaign.”

The princess assumed that Queen Azure had access to all her family's belongings and anything that might be left from their history. If they were not enemies it would have been nice to speak to her and look at old portraits and keepsakes. Yet, she was vial to her core, she had to be making a pact with The dragon of darkness for so long. She doubted there was any Azure left in her.

Sensing that Azure was thinking about the war and her other older self, Signe decided to change the subject. “Mhm. So, what did you order?”

“shrimp pad thai, it looked very delicious and the Thai restaurant is by our place so I ordered that. I am excited to try out this new food!!!”

There was so many exciting foods in 2021, obviously no place had traditional Arondite Foods but she had been enjoying all the new meals especially the ones that Elena had cooked for her but really she was yet to taste a food that wasn’t delicious from someone. In general food had improved over the years in her opinion.

“Ooh, sounds delicious.” said Signe, enjoying Azure’s excitement. She may not be able to eat food herself without it tasting like ash and dust, but seeing her girlfriend being hyped to try 21st century food was wonderful in its own way.

Becoming a vampire removes a good chunk of mortal pleasures like eating good food and basking in sunlight, and over the years Signe started to enjoy these vicariously through her partners, enjoying their happiness and excitement rather than the actual thing. That it now was Azure just made it all that much better.

Azure hoped all the lack of mortal pleasures wasn’t too much for Signe, she knew it had to be hard but it was in exchange for her freedom so she doubted Signe would pick differently no matter what the costs were. Still Azure wished she could do something to help Signe enjoy the joys she no longer could beyond letting her watch her.

Azure licked her lips with her hungry desire then said “Yes, I shall tell you all about it’s taste and compare it to dishes from our childhood to give you a sense of it’s flavor!”

“Aw, that’s sweet, I look forward to it. But it seems I have forgotten how things used to taste like. So don’t be disappointed if I don’t get it.” Signe smiled, and then raised a finger to her chin as if realizing something, “But perhaps it will work when it’s you describing them. You know, not just telling me *how* something tasted, but also *when* we tasted it. More stories and such.”

“That sounds good, I will try that to see how that feels for you. I’ll spin you a tale that tastes, smells, can be scene and heard, you’ll feel the story!”

Azure gave the same fiery determined eyes, she had a goal and she would reach it, cooking on modern tools may be complicated but she could still eat and spin a story out of it. Ironically as that was said there was a knock on their door and Azure ran to grab her food “Thank you! Have a nice evening kind delivery person!”

Then turned back to put the meal down and eat it, only it was also a test of her storytelling capabilities. Time to eat!