Edited: Let's say the version I had written of this chap had many mistakes, so as to fix them Flyingninjafish is assiting me in re-writing the first few chapters again. This chapter is re-written into something better thanks to him. Thank you Flyingninjafish for the awesome and improved chapter! xD
Note: I do not own Danmachi.
"KAMI-SAMA GOMEEEEEE!"
"BELL-KUN YOU BAKAAAAAA!"
Townsfolk stopped in their tracks and watched in a mix of amusement and baffled surprise, as a certain goddess of the hearth chased a certain rabbit-esque hero around the streets of the town with a broom in hand, jealous fury etched on her face while the poor boy she was chasing looked close to tears.
"WHY WERE YOU OUT WITH THAT ADVISER OF YOURS?!"
"I-IT WASN'T A DATE, I SWEAR!"
"G-GODDESS HESTIA, BELL!" As if on cue, Bell's dungeon advisor Eina (who had been with Bell prior to his goddess chasing him away) also came rushing over, clearly worried for her charge's well being. Though the goddess and albino boy had already raced far ahead of her, so chasing was no use. Eina slumped over, mumbling to herself, "Oh, I hope he's gonna be ok…"
Fortunately, Bell had become quite adept at escaping and running away, and soon he had managed to outrun his goddess, making it seem as easy as a flick of the wrist. Still, that didn't stop him from running further away. Hestia was scary when she was angry!
'If I go back she'll be waiting, if I return home she'll find me, i'll just have to hide away until she cools down!' Bell thought as he skillfully jumped against a wall and pushed against it, grabbing the other wall next to it and pulling himself up, before continuing to run. 'I need to somewhere she would never go! And the one place Hestia NEVER visits was…'
He turned the corner and dashed up the stairs, to the exact place where he and Ais Wallenstein regularly trained. He let out a breath, leaning over and slumming against the wall, trying to catch his breath. "I should be… safe here!" He huffed, looking around. No one in sight, good.
Before he could congratulate himself on his daring escape from the rampaging goddess, a yawn escaped his lips without his control and he grimaced. 'Dammit. I've been training these past few nights and haven't gotten that much sleep.' He sighed. 'But if I sleep in the middle of the day everyone might notice and question me.'
Then an idea came to mind, and he looked around again. He blinked, and thought over it. "Well no one's around..." He decided, inwardly grateful for that. "...guess a little nap won't hurt. Not like anyone's gonna find me here anyways."
He laid against the wall, remembering Ais's words on learning to sleep anywhere, and let his eyes slowly flutter close. Before he knew it, Bell had drifted off into a well deserved sleep.
"Yes Riveria, i'm just going for a walk." Ais nodded, making sure her sword was secured in its sheath by her hips. You know, in case someone decided to randomly attack the sword princess. Funnily enough there had been a number of feeble attacks on her in the past before she took to carrying her sword about casually. It was an incident involving five men she had needed to fight off with nothing but some toothpicks that had lead her to always having her weapon on hand.
Riveria looked over her, and sighed. "Fine. But no training. You've done enough work at the dungeon for today. You need to try and relax more." She scolded. Before she could recommend something fun for her friend to do to relax, she was quickly pulled away by an excited Lefiya asking her questions about some new spells she had found in the Loki Familia's library.
Ais rolled her eyes and nodded, not waiting to reply as she turned and left. 'Where should i… go exactly?' She thought, only just now realizing 15 minutes later that she had no destination in mind whatsoever. She pouted cutely, racking her brain to see if there was anything she could do for fun. 'Maybe… yeah, the view up there is beautiful.'
She nodded to herself, destination decided, and made her way through the town towards the wall that surrounded it. She began to recognise the area she was in soon enough, as she had walked this way plenty of times over the past few months. Unconsciously, a smile tugged at her lips as she reminisced about her training with the little rookie. Ais barely noticed her own movements as she walked around the corner, up the steps and to the place where she had trained her little bunny student.
Though, she stopped upon noticing the boy who took up so much of her thoughts, was already there. Sleeping soundlessly against the wall, looking cute and defenseless with strands of hair falling over his eyes, with a small smile on his lips.
She tilted her head. "... Bell?"
He didn't so much as twitch. Yep, he was asleep. And having some pleasant dreams by the smile on his face. She carefully crept up to him, mindful so as not to wake him. and sat beside him on her knees, her hand rising to gently stroke his hair. She smiled fondly. "You must be very tired to be sleeping at a place like this."
Her answer was a slight tilt of the head, resulting in more of Bell's white, fluffy hair falling over his face. She pushed it away as well, thankful that right now she had all the time in the world to pet her sleepy little bunny. Then, a wicked idea came to mind.
Gently hosting his body down so he laid on the ground, she lowered his head gently onto her lap, taking care not to startle him awake. He still slept, the only change being that his body was able to relax far easier in this more relaxed position. Ais smiled victoriously at her success, whispering to herself, "You always run away or wake up screaming whenever I give you a lap pillow, but now I'll see how you escape." If she learned how he managed to keep avoiding her, she'd be able to keep him like this for as long as she liked.
Still no response from the peaceful boy. Smiling, she started to stroke his hair again. 'This is so soothing for some reason… it's like… my soul is being cleansed by his pureness.' Ais didn't know if this was the sort of thing Riveria would have recommended to help her relax, but it was certainly doing the trick. She never even noticed how her breaths started to sync up with the boy she was cradling, for a brief moment of perfect harmony between them.
Sadly for the sword princess though, soon after that thought came in mind, Bell's eyes started to flutter open, a small groan escaping from him. That didn't stop Ais from continuing to pet him though, even as his red eyes opened fully and slowly took in his surroundings.
"...Am I dreaming?" She remembered him asking that before.
"No." She shook her head.
"...Is this an illusion?" Again he asked sleepily. She shook her head again.
"No again."
A pause. Then he finally registered where he was, who he was with, and what she was doing to him. Bell's face was quickly over come with a deep crimson flush, his breath quickening in his embarrassed panic. Ais readied herself, realizing what he was about to-
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH GOME AIS-SAAAAAAAAAN!" He sprang to his feet and leapt over the side of the wall, rolling to break his fall and dashing off into the town. She sat momentarily baffled, before pouting and also getting up.
"Bell wait!" This time she actually gave chase.
Again, the townsfolk stopped and watched as a certain screaming rabbit ran across the streets with a certain sword princess chasing after him to stop.