"Uh…hi…?"
The pregnant silence was broken by an attempt at communication, but not a successful one.
Elena's eyes widened slightly as she watched Damien. It was impossible to see it normally, but in Elena's eyes, Damien's minute awkward fidgeting was clearly displayed.
A warm smile spread on her face.
Even after so many years, his romantic awkwardness was the same as ever, eh?
"It's been a while," she said lightly with a smile. "How have you been?"
Her words were simple, but carried a mysterious air that washed over Damien and calmed his anxious mind.
As he looked on at the woman in front of him, he barely recognized her. From her personality which had become so firm and calm to her appearance which had matured and bloomed into its full potential, Elena was truly a changed person.
"It's been a while" held far more weight than its simplicity let on.
"How have you been," just how was he supposed to answer that question?
He tried as best he could, but all that came out was:
"You know how it is. I've just been doing this and that, making my way around. What about you?"
"Same," she responded lightly.
The room was enveloped in another lull of silence.
The tension between them was thick, so thick that they weren't able to maneuver through it.
They'd both changed so much over the years, what if they weren't compatible anymore? What if their feelings were mere idealizations that only existed in their minds?
They were useless doubts, but doubts that surfaced naturally and couldn't be ignored.
However, Damien would no longer allow these doubts to rule him. That was the greatest difference between him in the past and present.
"Shall we go for a walk?" He asked lightly, holding his hand out to Elena.
She looked at it, her eyes serene and without waves. When she looked back up into his, they softened.
She gracefully held his outstretched hand and nodded happily.
"I'd be delighted," she said, standing up off the bed.
Damien nodded, and soon after, the duo vanished.
When they reappeared, they were on a beach at the edge of existence.
On their left was nothing but blackness, and to their right was an ever-expanding ocean that was illuminated under the light of 6 moons.
There was no better place for a serene walk than this place that left one alone with their thoughts and the beauty of the world.
Damien and Elena experienced this personally.
They walked along the beach for hours without a single word, their entwined hands never separating and their minds and bodies slowly melding into one.
It was true that neither of them could quite put what they wanted to say into words.
But in the current situation, they didn't need to.
Wisps of pitch-black mana flowed between their interlocked fingers, turning the previous expression literal.
Their minds and bodies became one.
They could feel each other's hesitation and anxiety, and gradually, even their memories began to intermingle and display themselves.
It was dark and quiet. The cascading waves of the ocean ebbed and flowed against the beach, slowly pulling inward with time. The subtle light of the moons that shone on its surface rippled, creating beautiful lunar phenomena over the water.
And Damien and Elena slowly "learned" each other once again.
Hesitation faded into the background, and rather than a silence brought about by tension, the silence shifted into one of understanding.
Words were no longer needed to convey their feelings.
The two of them were mature now. Damien was already in his 30s, and Elena wasn't far from reaching that point either.
After all they'd experienced, they didn't have the ability to have a blisteringly hot, love-filled reunion as one would expect of them.
Without them realizing, their love for each other had become deeper and more rooted, it had matured into something more intrinsic that didn't manifest itself so powerfully.
Because it didn't need to. They simply didn't need to be so explosively affectionate to convey their intentions anymore.
The sand crunched under their feet as they came to a stop. As if already aware of each other's intentions, they set down on the beach and faced the sea.
"You've been through a lot," Damien muttered, never breaking his eyes from the horizon.
"Can you really say that after what you've been through?" Elena quipped back with a smile.
"Haha, why can't I? I don't have your main character energy, so I had to work hard to make enemies, you know?"
"Aha, so all that targeting was because of main character energy! Why didn't I think of it sooner?"
"Naturally, it's because I'm a peak genius that can't be matched. I just have that kind of intuition."
"Oh, that makes sense. I've always known you were a peak genius, especially back on Earth when you predicted the World Awakening way before it happened."
"I did that?"
"You didn't? Then what was all that 'Black Fla—"
"Wow, bringing up decades-old dirt. Low blow."
"Ehh? I'm sure our peak genius can handle it?"
"You're the devil."
"Right, I'm the devil who seduced you, Mr. Peak Genius."
"Mm, it's really annoying. You should compensate me for the emotional damage."
"Should I?"
"Definitely. You should spend the rest of your life atoning for it by my side."
"Hmm, what should I do? It seems I was already planning to do that, though?"
Damien and Elena smiled at each other.
This dynamic, it was different from the past, but it hadn't changed as much as they'd expected.
Because no matter how they changed, the cores of their personalities remained the same. And as people who'd known each other from young, how could their relationship be broken by just a little tension and doubt?
After viewing each other's experiences, they understood each other perfectly. Elena's [Daughter of the Void] title also acted, bringing her and Damien's souls closer together, though the two in question didn't realize it.
"Romance."
It was something they were both terrible at.
When they saw each other's perspective of their separation, they felt their faces burning up in embarrassment at how childish and stupid they used to be.
But back then, they were right about one thing.
Their relationship had become too twisted by needless complications to function. They needed a fresh start.
Now, meeting at a time like this, they were finally given that fresh start.
And neither of them planned to waste it.
Their conversation continued until the moons set beyond the horizon and two suns rose above the ocean, one red and one yellow.
They talked about the experiences they viewed, Elena taking an avid interest in Hidden Death Valley and Damien's encounters with Demigods, while Damien was more interested in how Elena maneuvered herself in Eien to rise the ranks so fast.
Eventually, their conversation branched away from the past and became more random as they talked about even the most mindless topics for hours at a time just to listen to each other's voices for as long as they could.
They relished in the feeling of closeness between them, a feeling they'd both missed for so long.
This was it, that grounding force that Damien was searching for, and that beautiful connection that Elena had been chasing.
This was "family."
And now that they'd taken hold of it, they never planned on letting it go ever again.
