A strawberry shortcake plate was placed on a table with a fork. A slender slightly pale hand reached for the fork and used it to cut off a section. Picking it up and placing it in their mouth, they chewed several times before smiling. The one eating a cake right now was Maro, who was enjoying her first sweet treat. While her expressions are not as expressive as most people, you could still tell that she enjoyed it a lot. Sora was sitting on the other side of the table with his own piece, watching the slight changes on her face.
The two were having a celebration for Maro getting her body. He had laid out several selections of food that had various flavors. Ranging from spicy to sweet, he organizes more than a dozen different types of foods. His main goal was to test how she would react to every flavor. After all, food spoke to a person's heart the most. At least that was Sora's philosophy when it came to food. The first thing was to enjoy a cake, to honor Maro gaining a new chance at life. He chose typical celebrations foods to start off first. Cake and pasties to start things off sweet, then foods like fried chicken, french fried and pizza. Included were drinks like sodas and juices to quench their thirst.
He wanted to have some party favors, but realized he didn't have anything like that on hand or nearby. There weren't any stores that sold those items so they had to make due with just food. Enjoying the food was already good enough for them. Sora only wished he could have gotten more variety to share. The two enjoyed their small celebration while Sora tried to think of ways to get Maro to talk more.
"How is everything Maro? Anything you dislike?" He asked.
"Everything is delicious Sora-sama, I understand why you enjoy the meals you have so much." She said while taking a bite into a chicken drumstick.
"Thats good. If you want more of anything just let me know. You don't have to hold back or be reserved, alright?" He said while pushing another piece of cake toward her. Of all the foods that she tried, she seemed to enjoy the cake the most. That was when she smiled the most. The other foods were met with the same but smaller smile while chewing. He even tried to get her to try the spicy foods but even then she didn't have much change.
What was really surprising was the size of Maros' appetite. She was able to eat almost the entire pizza, more than half a fried chicken, an entire cake, several small bags of junk foods and bottles of sodas and juices. Sora couldn't help but watch, slightly amazed and shocked. Wondering how she could eat so much while being a bit smaller than him. It was understandable that she was hungry, given the fact her body was in a stasis-like state for millions of years. But the amount she was currently consuming was more than he ever ate in his entire life.
She was basically in a trance, eating without a care or worry. Sora couldn't find an opportunity to get a word in, afraid that he might interrupt her. Once all the food was almost gone, did she notice Sora was watching her, and that the food was almost finished. A faint blush appeared on her face before giving a small bow to Sora.
"Forgive me! The food was so delicious that I couldn't help myself." She said, trying to explain herself. Another new expression that Sora was able to witness. Maro getting embarrassed and shy, showing that she was getting more and more used to her feelings and body.
"Don't worry about it Maro, its all for you anyway. If you want some more, don't hold back." He said with a smile while handing her another soda. Maro took the soda, opened it and took a drink and showed a more gentle smile.
"Thank you Sora-sama." She said, making him feel embarrassed a bit as well. For him, anyone would get a bit flustered if someone so beautiful gave them such a loving smile. To hide it, he started to ask if she wanted anything else and made orders on Chef.
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After the meal, Sora and Maro took the rest of the day to rest. It was already dark where they were and Sora had already spent most of the day training. He was tired, doing anything else would make him exhausted. When Sora took a shower and changed for bed, he froze in his tracks when he went to lay down. Because in his bed was a gorgeous young woman sitting on one side of the bed. Maro was currently sitting there wearing a long sleeping gown that Sora suggested she make for herself. A set of clothes and sleepwear for women that he typically saw in films and shows. Moreover her hair was currently still a bit wet, meaning she must have showered as well and just came over.
"Uh, M-Maro? You know there's plenty of other rooms to sleep in." He said while looking away. He found it incredibly difficult to even look her in the eye with how she looked right now. Especially since the moonlight was shining in, making her look more ethereal. Maro gave a confused look to Sora.
"But we have always slept together. Ah! Perhaps my current appearance is bothering you? I am sensing a fluctuation in your emotions." She said. It seems for her this was still a normal occurrence to sleep with him. After all, they had already been together since they met. However, now that Maro had her body back she was a full grown woman, and a beautiful one at that. Someone like Sora, who never had a relationship, was unprepared at the sight and thought of having someone in his bed.
"No, no, no, it's not how you look. Definitely not that. It's just, men and women don't sleep together unless they have an intimate relationship. So…" he said while lingering on the last word.
"Oh, I see. Forgive me Sora-sama. I will leave you to rest." She said while getting to leave. This time her response and reaction were a bit emotionless. It seems she still had trouble incorporating her memories, and the common social interaction habit into her current life. Even then she was able to look back on them and remember.
"Alright. Good night Maro! Have a sweet dream alright? And don't wake up early, sleep as long as you need." He said, aiming to wish her first night sleep to go well.
"Good night to you too." She responded calmly back. Noticing her change in behavior from her previous more upbeat, he wondered if she was nervous about sleeping alone. But he dismissed it because she wasn't a child after all. He laid in bed and covered himself in the blanket. As he twisted a turn for the first few minutes, and slowly drifted to sleep. He didn't know how much time had passed by, but after a while he started to hear his name.
"Sora-sama. Sora-sama?" The voice said, waking him from his sleep. Looking up his vision focused to show Maro standing there fiddling with her own fingers.
"What's wrong Maro?" He asked.
"Um, I am sorry to disturb your sleep, and I understand you are reserved with me being in the same bed, but I am finding it difficult to sleep. Being in the other room is a bit lonely, I believe is the word for how I feel." She said while looking down. Even when she did Sora was able to make out her eyes which were showing signs of unrest. Sora felt sorry and realized that she is still getting adjusted to her emotions. Not only that, her mind spent the majority of its life exploring the entire universe alone. Sora's bed had two pillows on, and he was only using one anyway. Sucking up his nervousness, he gestured her to the other side of his bed. If it wasn't for the size of the bed, being closer to her would've made him go crazy.
"Thank you Sora-sama!" Seeing his approval, she thanked him. Maro's expression lightened up a little bit and slipped into the other side of the bed. Shortly after adjusting herself in bed, she closed her eyes and feel sleep after a few minutes. Seeing her fall asleep easily made him wonder how tired she must be. Most mentally and physically, from being reborn to devouring a full meal by yourself. While it was a bit difficult for him at first, he did eventually fall asleep. The sound of two people's breath turning steady came from the room.
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Sora was the first to get up since he wasn't as tired as Maro would be. She was still sleeping on her side, hugging a pillow in a fetus position. Seeing her lay there with the rays of the sun shining on her, he got entranced by her beauty. After a moment of staring, he flattened his palms and pressed them together, and started praying.
"Thank you for this beautiful morning…" he mumbled while rubbing his hands together toward the sky, while keeping his head down. The way the sun was shining in it was almost like he was being shined upon by a deity above. After messing around, he went to get ready and cleaned up for the day. He tried his best to not disturb Maro who was still in a deep slumber and left the room. As always he went to Chef for a meal and enjoyed some breakfast before planning his day.
The door to his room slid open and revealed a slightly disheveled woman who walked around looking for something. It was when her eyes saw Sora did she let out a breath of relief.
"Good morning! I am sorry I slept longer than expected." She said while walking over.
"Good morning to you too! Its fine don't worry about it. Are you hungry? Did you want to eat first or go freshen up?"
"I will go shower first, and I will join you once I am finished." She said and turned to go get ready. Sora waited for her so that they could just go together. He was used to being with Maro or not in general, but now she was a person instead of a ball. He didn't want to leave her behind alone, nor did he want to be alone. In the month that Maro went to go assimilate with her body, the time alone was something he hated. It felt like he went back to the time in his lonely apartment. If it weren't for the fact that he had something to wait for and plenty of activities to do, he most likely would just be sitting and drinking.
Maro came out looking ready and neat. Her hair was straightened and had an outfit that was a simple shirt and pants with a thin coat. It was a white shirt that had a wrap on the stomach to tighten and a collar with a button. Her coat was the same color and both had simple lines, outline the outfits edges. The pants were simple black long pants and it looked like it was made from the same material as her other clothes.
After letting Maro have her breakfast, the two set off to do Sora's daily task and training. Maro accompanied him on everything so that she could experience everything, but also make an evaluation of his progress. They started off with assessing him first then spent the rest of the day playing. Sora took Maro to experience physical activities, like hiking and farming first.
One of the things that was already in the sanctum was a small terrain vehicle. It was made to be able to move through any type of ground, turn into a boat to float above water, and if needed it could temporarily hover for a time to fly up or over things too high. Sora had used this to go a bit further than he normally could on foot, to explore places that were hard to travel to. Naming it the Voyager, he made it the go to vehicle to get around on. It was spacious inside with the back holding up to 10 people plus two up front.
Exploring the surrounding environment, smelling the flowers and air, feeling the warm sun and cool breeze, and taking in the scenery from the beautiful sun to the starry night sky. At one point when they were exploring the nearby forest, they encountered several woodland animals. But none of the predatorial animals came by, which let their stroll be peaceful.
Every moment where Maro felt something new, Sora felt like her expression of those feelings became a bit more expressive. When she was nervous she now showed signs of it, her happiness now had different ways to show it and she even laughed at several of his jokes. At the end of the day the two were sitting outside enjoying the moons shining their light down. The nights here weren't as pitch black as the nights on earth. Here it was decently illuminated where you could still see where you were going. Of course the night was entirely just them. Since Maro was able to control the droids at will, Sora got her to use the droids to bring out drinks for them and snacks.
It was at this point a thought suddenly crossed into Sora's head. He took a look at how he and Maro looked. Laying on a blanket looking at the night starry sky, enjoying a red wine bottle, eating cheese, the assortment of meats and crackers.
'This is almost like a date right?' He thought to himself while taking glimpses at Maro.
'Even if it's not, this is still nice.' He thought and smiling to himself like a fool.
"How was the day Maro, enjoy it?" He asked.
"I enjoyed it very much! I am happy to have my first day experiencing what it is to be alive again." She said.
"Thats good. Because it's gonna be fun around here, now that I got another person to do stuff with." He said.
"Spending time on Ayir does sound wonderful, but would you not want to explore the nearby galaxy? I had already finished the assessment of your current abilities, and they were within acceptable results. We can begin preparation to leave at your wish." Maro told Sora.
"Really? Then let's go tomorrow or the day after. I wanna see what a real space civilization looks like." He said.
"Understood. I will begin plans to prepare for the journey." Maro said as her eyes shined for a split second.
The two then continued to enjoy the rest of the night with small talk before heading back. Sora went to clean up in his room's shower while Maro used one of the empty rooms' bathrooms. Once he was done he put on simple his typical shorts and tshirt to sleep. He then started to browse on the tablet for something to watch. When Maro finished she joined him in his room and went to lay down on her side of the bed. Something about a beauty fresh out of the shower made them feel more beautiful. Sora silently gave thanks in his head. Maro saw that Sora was watching clips of videos and got curious as well. At first it was just random clips of people making their own content. But what caught Maro's eye were the ones of tv shows and drama.
"Sora-sama, what are these videos?" She asked as she pointed at the drama clips.
"Huh? Oh, those are drama shows. Back home we like to watch shows that are fictional portrayals of events. We like to imagine these absurd moments play out in certain ways. Some are reenactments of real life moments with a bit of exaggeration." Sora started to explain the different types of genres and plots that were some of his favorites. Maro must find them very interesting, because she was entirely focused on everything he was explaining.
"Luckily you sorted all the shows and episodes. With all of these we have tons of variety to choose from." Sora said. Before Maro became a person again, her robotic self had organized literally every single show that was on the internet. Now he had the biggest library of shows than anyone else on Earth and even in the universe.
That was when he put on one of the dramas, of a popular romance drama about a girl joining a boys band. Throughout the episode they watched, Maro was intently the show. When they finished the episode, Maro looked a bit disappointed they couldn't continue. But Sora was tired after all and he wanted to sleep before Maro began an all night marathon with him. He turned off the lights and went to sleep. Maro did the same, but waited until he had completely fallen asleep. Maro then used her psionic powers to bring the tablet over to her. Turned on the next episode of the drama and started watching, trying her best not to disturb Sora. She didn't need headphones to hear since she could mentally connect to most of the technology. So there was no issue of noise bothering him. She kept watching the episode one after another.
The next morning Sora woke up to the ray of the sun. He was expecting to see something good in the morning to start the day. But when he turned, he saw a young lady laying in bed, bags under her eyes, watching a drama on the tablet.
'Did, did she watch the drama all night?' He asked himself.
"Maro? Hey, Maroooo?" He called to her but she wasn't paying attention to him. It wasn't until he waved his hand in front of her that she snapped out of it. She looked around only to see that Sora was awake and the sun had come up. She then got flustered while trying to explain herself.
"Huh? Eh?! But I was sure it was night just now." She said as scrambled to get up. But Sora stopped her before she could.
"Stop! And that's why we don't watch too many episodes before bed. Sooner or later you'll get sucked in. It's nice to see you so flustered Maro." Sora said while chuckling a bit. Maro unconsciously covered her face with the blanket but you could still see a hint of her blush.
"Why don't you sleep in today. Gotta get enough sleep or else you won't function right." He said while pressing a button on a table near the bed. The windows started to dim to the point it was almost dark in the room.
"But I am supposed to be by your side! How can I sleep when I must assist you?" Maro tried protesting but was held back from getting up.
"You don't have to assist me when you're not in good condition. Look Maro, your health is a higher priority than assisting me. I don't think I can even do much if I knew you were in bad shape. So here's a new thing you need to learn, take it easy. Sweet dreams~." He said as he started walking out.
"Alright. Thank you." She said as she hesitantly laid back down. At first she was deciding whether or not to just leave. But the need for sleep overtook her, and she feel asleep.