Interlude 3
#12 of Among Stars
Part of: Among Stars (Prequel to 'The Golden Month')
The story of how a crew of misfits shattered the dominance of the Empire's tyranny.
Their victories, their losses, and their ultimate fate. An odyssey across the endless frontier that is space!
Las Lindas Web Comic Spin-Off, OC-Insert
The characters in this story (Except the OC-Insert) are © chalodillo
Interlude 3
Grace happily hummed as she continued to quietly read one of the many new books now surrounding her lying form.
Enjoying the softness of her bed, the Gazelle Prime eagerly exploited the little time left before dinner to enjoy some relaxation after her first training session. Just as Theo had informed her, the first day was tough, but not too much in her humble opinion. Draining as they were within the few sets, the exercises she had to go through were not entirely complicated to properly complete.
The human had brought up a couple of points that she needed to work on.
Her stamina needed some improvement, and that could be fixed by running a couple of laps around the gym room twice every session. Since Grace was already nimble, her speed just needed to have the 'fuel' to become a better advantage for her to make use of.
The Love Crest wasn't a heavy hitter, especially with how limited her capacity to damage her opponent was due her lack of strength. It didn't help that her staff was unable to deliver its best attack potential because of this issue.
For now, this was her priority. She needed to put good effort into each session and make sure to find a balance between going hard with the troublesome tasks and accepting pauses in between sessions to not strain her body too much. Adela was the one that explained to her how going too far and too fast with her exercises meant doing more harm than good, the young Queen bringing up Carmesi as a good example of going overboard with training.
The Fox Prime didn't seem to like that kind of comment, frowning but not glaring at their leader. Grace wasn't exactly sure if it was because the fellow Crest was too distracted by her own training or because the royal did have a point with her stories regarding the fiery young woman, but one thing was sure in her mind. Training wouldn't be a quick way to reach her goal as quickly as she would've initially wanted.
That was something that had annoyed her at first, but then Grace found a good reason to keep going as she started to feel the strain. Theo was there and inciting her as he too was working through his training routine. He wasn't a Prime and, like he had mentioned in his explanation of what 'humans' were, he was putting more strain on his body by training so intensely. It was only due to magic being a factor that prevented him from being exhausted by fatigue and tiredness.
When asked why he would put himself through such a difficult situation that could damage his body, the young man smiled and shrugged.
"_ I'm Addie's knight. I'm meant to be ready to be there to fight for her and the others. You included, Gracie." _
That little speech spurned the Gazelle Prime to go beyond what her aching body would've wanted her to do. To stop for a moment, to rest, to see and watch while the others continued with their activities. The mere thought of giving up this early on was almost infuriating. She felt a hint of shame, but soon that transformed into determination to get through that first session with a fierce attitude and a stubborn interest to keep pushing until the very end.
Tired and particularly exhausted once she was done with the session, the post-training shower was where her true peak of the day happened. Having yet to grow accustomed with the fact that these showers weren't just cold, her body almost felt like it was melting as she entered inside the cubicle without a dress on.
Sweat forcefully washed off her body, she hummed happily as the pleasant stream of water did its job in cleansing any impurities in her fur. She then made use of the soap to further aid in the cleaning process, only at that point she realized that she didn't have a time limit in which she had to leave the cubicle.
Yes, she couldn't exactly remain in that shower forever, but she wasn't forced to leave it after a few minutes, whenever she had gone through all bits of the procedure or now. For the first time in her entire life, Grace loved all the aspects of taking a quiet and pleasantly-paced shower.
It was bliss, it was enlightening. It reminded her that no longer did she need to worry about being controlled and pushed around against her will. Right here, right now... the young woman was given the chance of being her own person and doing whatever she wanted. All in exchange for having to prepare to fight for this new freedom of hers against the master of those the Love Crest was now running away from.
Friends, family- these concepts that once were restrained within the ink of books she had grown to immortalize as a child and a teen were now materializing as a certainty in her new life. Had she reached her happiest point? Not... yet.
It was tough to really accept this as truth. In her mind, it just felt like this much generosity had to have a catch. It had to. And yet, no real price had unveiled itself for her to either pay or dismiss as proof that this was all a beautiful dream that was too good to be true.
Sighing quietly, Grace turned another page. This book about this young girl, Alice, was truly a curious tale to read. It was so different from the many tales she had the chance to read about and it reminded her so much of how beautiful her imagination had been as a child. Things were easier to hide away in child-like creativity and wonder. Now, it was too difficult to try and cover the unpleasantness of her former captors.
Instead, her mind happily accepted the novelty of her current predicament as she wondered if this was the promised wonderland that she had craved for so long. And as the Love Crest pondered this very possibility, someone decided to knock at her room's door.
The Gazelle Prime blinked. "Yes? Who is it?"
"It's Theo."
Her eyes widened, and a bright smile appeared on her face as she put her book aside and stood up.
"Come in," She happily said, wondering what the human was doing at this hour.
The door opened and the young man stepped inside with a sigh. "Gracie, dinner is almost ready and-"
He paused, his eyes widening in surprise as he got a full view of her. He stared her up and down, his cheeks burning a curious crimson before awkwardly resuming with his words.
"A-Aren't you feeling... cold, Gracie?"
She blinked. "Cold?"
As soon as she said this, her mind finally brought to her attention that, since her room's temperature had been increased by her own volition, she had decided to rest by the bed without any clothes on.
"Oh, I just didn't feel like wearing anything right now. I will come to the dining room soon."
"With your clothes on, please," The young man pressed and the girl nodded, now gazing at him with a hint of confusion.
"Of course. Why?"
...
"N-Nothing," He replied after a couple of moments. "S-See you soon then."
As Grace nodded at the retreating form of the human, she took a moment to try and understand why he had reacted like this when she wasn't wearing her dress. Surely there was nothing wrong in being freed from silky restraints from time to time, so in her mind, that behavior felt incredibly bizarre. It wasn't like she was doing anything even remotely close to the 'talk' he had given to her.
They were just friends. Very good friends that the Love Crest couldn't help but feel rather tenderly about, with her chest pleasantly burning and butterflies fluttering in her stomach every time he gave her one of his confident smiles. The girl blinked again, this time a curious thought making her wonder about a very interesting possibility that could explain that interesting behavior of his.
What if... he likes it when I'm like this, but is too shy to ask me to be like this?
...Maybe.
This thought continued to play in her head for a while longer, and shortly after, as she started to put on her clothes, Grace decided that this warranted some experimenting to check if this was the truth or a mere misconception.
_ Didn't Addie mention shared showers? _
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AN
What are the chances of the Avatar of Love to be this dense and adorable this early on? XD