Alia seemed to think for a moment, shook her head. Then looked at me with an unhappy look. “Fine, I have wanted to meet Sapphire. Ruby was.. Different.. Then I remembered. But surely Sapphire will be the same right?”

  I looked at her for a long moment before nodding slowly. “Sure…” I trailed off not trusting myself to add anything else. Instead, I changed the topic. “So, the question is how to get there.”

  “Let me try something.” Alia said as she summoned her bubble rifle. I watched her in confusion as she jumped, then fired the gun. She was pushed back a few feet and almost fell off the roof on the other side. But she pointed the bubble rifle down and was able to burst upwards. She easily maneuvered with the gun to land next to me again with a smirk.

  “I still got it!” She said with a giggle. Turning she looked at me and asked. “Can you grab me and turn on gravity again? We can use it to make us light and then I can maneuver us to the castle.”

  I considered for a moment then shrugged. I grabbed her around the waist and lifted her. “OH!” She cried and her cheeks went instantly red. “I.. um.. well.” was all she could say for a moment. I ignored her and faced us away from the castle before activating the gravity skill.

  We floated a few feet into the air before she pulled the trigger. We blasted way harder than I thought and hit the castle window hard. Because the window was plastic, it didn’t budge. Luckily, it didn’t need to.

  I tightened my grip with my left arm, causing her to squeal and grab my arm. I used my right one to let go and tap hard on the window. The sound of a window creaking open played and we appeared on the other side.. In mid air.. My abilities instantly forced us onto the roof.

  I sighed and let go of Alia. She didn’t seem to be paying attention and landed face first on the plastic tiles. She stood and looked pissed. “What was that for!”

  I ignored her again and deactivated my ability. I began to fall and oriented myself. To my surprise, she tried to catch me?! I tried to shift but she refused and stepped accordingly. I landed directly on her. As expected, she failed to hold me and we both fell onto the ground in pain.

  “Thanks for.. Catching me.. I guess?” I said as I stood and stretched. Honestly, it was.. Nice of her. I had never.. Never mind. “Anyways! I said cutting off my own inner thoughts. That was not a rabbit hole I was going down.

  “Anyways, we should get going.” Alia cut me off as she looked around. I glared at her. She actually blushed and smiled before saying. “Of course.. That is what you should say.”

  I bit my lower lip as I felt my cheeks redden. “Uh.. yea.. But you know, it's um.. Fine if you do it sometimes.”

  There was a long moment of silence before I coughed into my hand and just walked past her towards the stairs going down. We had ended up in the castle attic. Don’t ask me why a castle had an attic. I felt a hand grab me and I turned to see Alia holding my hand, her cheeks redder than usual.

  “So.. um.. After this, you wanna.. Stay at the inn maybe?” She looked up at me and I saw desire in her eyes. Not a toy desire. Not programmed desire. Actual desire. I was so taken aback by the sudden action, I just stood there in stunned silence.

  After a moment she let go and looked away. “Ah, um.. Never mind. We uh.. Yea.” and she rushed past me down the stairs. I stood there in silence. Did.. did I tell the truth? Maybe.. Maybe I..

  “What the fuck! Alia’s voice came from down the stairs and pulled me from my thoughts. Rushing down the stairs I accidentally bumped into her, causing both of us to stumble on the steps and fall. Instead of stumbling down stairs however, we fell straight down and landed with a loud into the water below.

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  I let myself sink to the bottom and touched the plastic red carpet. We were in the throne room and the King was just sitting on his throne. I shook my head at the pure idiocy. Walking up to him as Alia looked for me on the surface of the water. I paused, then looked over to her before calling out.

  “Down here!” She heard me, because why should water physics work. Stupid sharks…

  She took a deep breath and pushed herself underwater, her dress soaking through and showing her nudity. I pushed my legs together uncomfortably as she opened her eyes and started looking for me.

  I waved up at her as she noticed me. Then beckoned her down here. She looked at me horrified. After a moment however, she started trying to swim towards me. The dress slowed her down and she was making no real leeway.

  “Take the dress off!” I called up.

  She looked at me angrily. “No! I just got this dress, you said it was your favorite color!”

  I sighed. “It’s an outfit not a gold bar. Just take it off and we can come back from it later. Sapphire has dresses just like that. You can take one of hers!” Somehow, what I said only enraged her more and she began trying to swim towards me faster.. And failing because of the dress.

  It was actually funny that she hadn’t realized she had stopped to talk to me, and went back to holding her breath. I wondered how long it would take her to..

  “Wait! Why don’t I need to breathe here?!” She suddenly cried out. Apparently not long.

  I had enough. I jumped and quickly swam up to her. Grabbing her, I stopped moving and we began to sink.. Slowly. I sighed heavily and looked at the stupid dress. “What's that!” I suddenly called out as I pointed at the castle doors.

  Alia turned for only a second and I pulled her dress off from the bottom. I learned to do that with Ruby. She screamed at me and tried to take it back, but I rolled it up and swam down quickly. She caught me and instead of stopping her, I stuffed the inside of my shirt, grabbed her in a hug, causing her cheeks to flash red and I wrapped my legs and arms fully around her. Causing us both to sink to the bottom.

  Only then did I let go, pull the dress out and toss it to her. “There, your dress is back.” I snarked. She grabbed the dress and tried to punch me. Her hand moved slowly through the water. I let it hit me anyways as I had a feeling she wouldn’t calm down otherwise.

  The hit landed and it hurt. I rubbed my cheek and shook my head. “Better?”

  She glared at me before throwing her dress on the ground “Fuck you!”

  She then turned and stamped, impressively since we were under water, out the front castle foyer. She punched the door and vanished. That was.. Odd. I looked down at the dress and picked it up. Why did she care about a stupid dress anyways?

  Turning, I looked up at the king and opened my mouth to speak. After a moment of not saying anything. I turned and rushed after Alia. Like hell she was just going to leave me like that with her dress!

  I slammed my fist on the door and appeared in the underwater foyer. She was standing by the door, laying against the wall and.. I think she was crying? I couldn’t tell since we were both around thirty feet underwater.

  I walked up to her and she glared up at me, the red around her eyes made it clear she was crying. I didn’t know what to say. I just slowly put the dress down in front of her before sitting next to her. “You know, it really is a pretty dress?” I tried quietly.

  There was no response, she just refused to look at me. I sighed and shook my head. “Look, I..”

  “Do you want to be with me or not?” She asked suddenly. Causing me to pause.

  “Well.. It’s not that simple.” I started to say.

  “Bullshit!” She screamed at me, once again impressive underwater. “Just say it! Tell me you want me here. Tell me you love me. I can’t play your stupid games. I just.. I want you and if that isn’t how this ends then I will just go!”

  Memories of the beach resurfaced and I swallowed heavily. Water filled my lungs, then evaporated. Game logic…

  Silence filled the room. A maid walked by. Her dress was soaked and see through. She actually looked kind of nice… Alia covered my eyes and by the time I pulled her hand from my eyes. The maid had walked by. That was when something clicked and I facepalmed.. Well, almost. The water slowed me down and I stopped before it hit my face.

  Alia was jealous. Like, super jealous. I couldn’t believe it. I laughed. I laughed hard. She looked at me like I had just stabbed her and went to swim away. I grabbed her and pulled her into a hug. She tried to resist, then wrapped her arms around me and quietly shook as she held me. I thought about what to say. But decided there was nothing I could say. Nothing I knew to say.

  So I sat there and held her as she held me back. Maids rushed back and forth, but I never looked back up.