merryfortune

98. Spark

Title: The First Day of the Rest of Our Lives

Ship: Hikaru/Lala

Fandom: Star Twinkle Pretty Cure

Word Count: 15,850

Rating: T

Warnings: None

Tags: Post-Canon, Aged Up Characters, Established Relationship, Interspecies Relationships, Alien Culture, Drama and Romance, Meeting the In-Laws, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Brother-Sister Relationship, Family Feels, Running Away Together, Background Het, Minor Original Female Character/Lolo, Established Kaka/Toto, Artificial Intelligence, Eugenics, Worldbuilding, Sexual References

   Lala brushed her fingers over the worn, slightly faded photograph for the umpteenth time in her angst. It showed all the girls: her, Yuni, Madoka, and Elena but it was Hikaru that she kept touching. Kept obsessing over, really. She sighed. In her down in the dumps demeanour, head slumped forward, her hair fell out of place and off her shoulders. 

Lala pushed it back in place. Her hair was beginning to get quite long. Before, her bob was refined and short. Now, it was getting overgrown. It had been three years since she last saw her Pretty Cure compatriots but most importantly, three years since she had so tearfully said goodbye to Hikaru.

Her heart squeezed and strained in her chest. She didn’t get it.

“Cheer up, little one,” her Mother, Kaka, told her, “we are going to meet Lolo’s betrothed today, you can’t be so gloomy when you meet her, lun.”

Lala’s antennae twitched in acknowledgement whilst Lala slowly found a reply, “I’m an adult, don’t call me, little one, lun.” she grouched.

Kaka chuckled enigmatically as she sat down to join Lala in her loneliness and commiseration. She wrapped her arm around Lala’s middle to give her a half-hearted hug but the best she got in return was a particularly teenaged sigh from her allegedly adult daughter.

“It’s because you're in love, lun.” Kaka said.

“Huh?” Lala rejected the premise entirely.

Her? In love? And with Hikaru? Surely not. She and Hikaru were merely the best of friends thrown into the most random of circumstances. It was almost like fate except entirely not. They butted heads, argued, fell asleep in each other’s arms, complemented each other like they were always meant to be two halves of the same whole, craved each other’s company like the need to breathe. Sure, she was all Lala could think about day in and day out but it was so intense and obsessive, it wasn’t like anything at all on record and oh.

Lala reluctantly accepted her mother’s words. Her heart stirred beyond the wildest of dreams for Hikaru.

“Hold onto that feeling,” Kaka continued, “that spark inside, lun, it’s very special and will guide you just like the old days, lun, before artificial intelligence and the like, lun.”

Lala grizzled. AI was the last thing she wanted to recall right now. All her life, she had been told she was nothing, she was a garbage sorter at best and zero at worst, all because of an AI and the numbers in generated. Since spending time on Earth and on other planets without the advanced technology, Lala had broken through the cultural acceptance of the concept. She made her own destiny, she defied the numbers.

“Toto and I were paired up by Mother AI, lun. It was love at first sight, lun. We’re very lucky to have that, lun.” Kaka reminisced. “Now, we are so proud that our eldest son is following in our footsteps, lun. We’re going to meet his fiance whom he has known for… What, likely mere minutes at this point, lun, and from there, Mother AI will map the rest of their lives, lun. How magical, lun.”

Lala’s stomach churned. Was that magical? She had felt magic before. The celestial stasis in which she transformed, the rush and thrill of it. Though fond in her voice and fully in love in her expression, Kaka had no idea how actual magic felt and what an amazing feat of adrenaline and bonds that real magic embodied. Her Mother was such a fool.

Luckily, Lala had just enough social development to know to hold her tongue there. Her face, however, a different story as she pouted and furrowed her lips. Not very adult-like at all. Good thing she was cute and had a face only a Kaka could love.

“Meanwhile, lun.” Kaka had reached her most poignant crescendo. “I have a youngest daughter that I’m so very proud of, too, lun. As she reaches for the stars, for beyond the Milky Way, lun, and forges her own path that I can hardly fathom, lun. Do what’s right for you, Lala, okay, lun?”

“Lun.” Lala nodded her head in agreement.

Her heart stirred. She still wasn’t sure if she was in love with Hikaru. Something about it just seemed so unlikely and peculiar that it just did not compute with Lala’s calculations but at the same time… She knew that she cherished their friendship and that she wanted to see Hikaru more than she wanted to see the sun rise in the morning.

“So, enjoy that spark, I’m sure you will understand better when we meet Lolo’s betrothed, lun.” Kaka said and she squeezed herself with maternal giddiness. “Ahhh, I can’t wait to meet my future daughter-in-law and all our grandchildren, lun!”

Lala exhaled in what might have been a puff of laughter. For some reason, though Kaka was happy, it still felt like a jab at Lala. Something about kids and in-laws were too far out of Lala’s realm of possibility even though… She was now of childbearing age at seventeen and here she was with her mother, gossiping about all things related to the heart but still. Ouch. Albeit inexplicably.

“C’mon, settle in closer, I have an idea, lun.” Kaka encouraged Lala with both her voice and how she beckoned with her hand.

Lala was suspicious but she let her mother do as she pleased. Kaka glanced over the photograph one last time and smiled pleasantly. She produced an elastic band from goodness knows where and Lala sat in her lap.

Kaka arranged Lala’s hair. Now longer than it had been during her first year of adulthood and even longer than what it grew when she was in her form as Cure Milky, it gave some flexibility of hair style that it hadn’t had prior. So, Kaka did Lala’s hair the same way it was in the picture with Lala’s girl, her object of affections. Kaka parted Lala’s teal hair down the middle, sectioned it off into even symmetry and then styled it as twin “pigtails”. By the time Lala had realised what Kaka had done, it was too late.

“Oyo?!” Lala exclaimed.

“It looks good on you, lun.” Kaka assured her.

Lala blushed slightly but was unable to protest as though on cue, Toto opened the door to the parlour with bursting excitement. The door slammed, he peered through and announced, “Lolo has returned, lun!”

Her Father paused and noticed Lala’s new hairstyle, “It looks good, lun.” he encouraged her politely but got lost in the din and delirium of the excitement to be had given his boisterous announcement.

Kaka squealed in delight but Lala kept her mouth shut. She wanted to meet this person before she made any judgements. She supposed it was good to be happy. Mother AI made… Little to no mistakes. Lala was just an outlier, the near impossible. Everything else went smoothly thanks to Mother AI’s wisdom.

Undesirables had been bred out long ago because of Mother AI’s matchmaking. There had been no instances of domestic violence or other unsocial behaviour, especially in intimate settings, as Mother AI had ensured none of those people could ever couple up and procreate. Mother AI chose for intellect and compatibility.

Really, whatever Lala was going through, the heartbeat which made no sense and the sweaty palms and the way she couldn’t get Hikaru out of her head was primitive. It was very… Earthling, in all honesty. It was closer to what Saman had been like prior to the rise of artificial intelligence and the perfection that it created.

So surely… Something good was about to happen but all Lala felt was nothing. Indifference.

As Kaka and Lala were already seated on floor cushions in the parlour, Toto joined them. He sat with them as they faced the door. He sent a message to Lolo and Lolo replied in agreement. He would bring his bride-to-be to the parlour.

They didn’t have to wait long until finally, Lolo unveiled Dodo.

“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, lun.” Dodo pinched her skirt by the sides and did a small curtsey in the doorframe of the parlour.

“Likewise, lun.” Lala managed to eke out as she was struck by how dull a personality Dodo appeared to have.

She was placid and smiley, agreeable, sure, as she did the round of greetings. She pressed her antennae against everyone else’s but there was hardly a spark. Her electricity that she generated was weak. Despite the pleasantries, how they made idle conversation about how Mother AI had planned her and Lolo’s eventual marital bliss and the rest of their lives, there was no true excitement. They may as well have been talking about the weather which never changed and was always palpable.

This is of note as even the weather was boring. Saman used to have multiple seasons but had long since equalised them with technology so the soils were always arid, food was always in season, and there was a pleasant chill in the air at all times. The Saman people preferred the cold to heat, Mother AI especially as the colder temperature helped regulate the heat Mother AI’s apparatus expelled. Surely it was all coincidence. Obedient beings in cool weather, grounds that never truly thawed. It all had to be frictionless. It showed in their personalities, not necessarily icy but something close.

Dodo embodied that. She sat next to Lolo obediently. She listened actively. They didn’t touch each other, didn’t look at each other. She met Lala, Toto, and Kaka’s eyes however but there was no true connection. She and Lolo seemed like friends at best. They were frigid strangers at worst.

As they made conversation and tried to acclimate them to their family unit, there was nothing to make Dodo stick. The only striking and exceptional thing about her was her hair. It was pink. Pink was an unusual phenotype to have. Though technicolour, bluer shades were more common and purple being kind of rare but pink. Pink was quite the oddity.

More and more, over the generations, as Mother AI chose who to pair up and if they produced at all, the Saman ethnic look homogenised. Mother AI liked - no, of course not, Mother AI is not truly sentient, it chose for prosperity – the aesthetic of little elves made from this selective breeding. Bright, round eyes, cherubic cheeks, hair in certain, usually dark shades, pale skin, no one over a certain height. It all turned the same which further made sense when checking the records, most Saman had a singular, common ancestor – and that person happened to be the originator of Mother AI’s invention.

No one mated too closely, of course, though on occasion second or third cousins might be selected but nothing closer. Anything closer would be uncivil but it was an obvious truth at the centre of all their looks. It was an open secret to anyone who requested genealogical data from Mother AI. Lala had requested it once or twice, to ponder. In her mind, surely, Lolo and his soon-to-be wife, Dodo, spoke all about that at the town hall wherein Mother AI inhabited the master supercomputer.

There would have been such enormity to consume in that summons. It was their first time meeting. They had lived parallel lives until now when it was revealed that their match would be excellent and they could have a child in the future, after a wedding.

Lolo and Dodo took turns recounting all this information to Lala, Kaka, and Toto. It sounded fantastical. Again, magical to Kaka who was beaming mother-in-law. She took well to Dodo but Lala was more guarded. She blamed it on her naturally abrasive personality but when she looked, when she searched, she just couldn’t see it.

She couldn’t see the spark that her mother had promised her that Lolo and his betrothed.

But as the years passed, they passed in accordance to the life plan that Mother AI had created for Lolo and Dodo. They really were a match made in heaven. They had being traditionalists in common at the very least. They got married in the spring – or, “spring” as it were. On that promised day, they wore revised versions of outfits that would have been culturally accurate to Saman. They did their rites, their vows, and it was as lovely as watching ice melt slowly.

Two years after that they married, they were permitted a child and in summer, they welcomed a daughter with the name Dada. She was born after strenuous testing and fertility treating, all of which had to be done under Mother AI’s watchful approval. Many eggs and sperm cells were rejected before Dodo could become pregnant with Lolo’s child via an artificial insemination. It took its toll but brought them all so much joy by the end of it.

It was a shame that their bid for a second child, ideally a boy, was rejected by Mother AI. Mother AI never gave a reason for this beyond it was not necessary but it broke both Lolo and Dodo’s hearts. They couldn’t fathom the needless cruelty of it. They were good people with good jobs and good social standing, crafted to perfection by Mother AI’s numbers and what a lot of good that did them if their wants became so secondrate to Mother AI’s foretelling. Even their parents, who were adoring grandparents to the toddler aged Dada, were upset by the news.

Lala was more detached. She enjoyed being an aunt, she liked to hold and sing to Dada, she clapped and applauded when the Saman rites of marriage were officiated. She had watched it all unfold but it was never truly satisfying to her.

She still looked for that spark.

She rejected all summons from Mother AI regarding how she was squandering her youth, out and about gallivanting through the galaxies as an inspector. Lala was childbearing age, and not for that much longer, either, which was a source of anxiety for both Lala’s actual mother and Mother AI. Lala was single and she was uniquely prized as a Pretty Cure, as the anomalous Saman native who defied all numbers but Lala didn’t want any of that. She was uninterested in mothering her own children, at best, she would report what she learned abroad on various planets during her stints as an inspector to Mother AI but that was that. Anything further left a bad taste in Lala’s mouth.

At first, she had been delighted by the way that artificial intelligence learned and learned from her. To hear “Kirayaba” from the different children and citizens of Saman felt like such a positive omen but over time, Lala jaded. No one ever requested the information as to where Kirayaba originated from or what it meant. It was just a trend or a fad. Soon, Lala noticed more of this incuriosity and she awoke to how suffocating the praise and adoration of Mother AI was. The blanket acceptance of Mother AI’s word as law was harrowing and it especially came to the forefront for Lala when she continued to be the problem.

Her body was not her own when it came to the planning of Mother AI. She was on the fritz in what was intended to be a flawless system. She was a wasted resource as she rebuked what the grand plan and schematic required of her as she held Hikaru, a human, so near and dear to her heart.

Whenever it got hard, when the looks from unkind strangers on her home planet was too much, when her inbox was all blown up with requests from Mother AI, Lala relied on the photograph that she kept in her breast pocket. She would close her eyes and think over the halcyon days on Earth and beyond gone by. Those memories took her back and she held onto them, tightly, for inspiration as she knew one day her time to return would arise.

Even if it seemed so faraway and impossible, the Earth was so insignificant in the grand scheme of the Star System Alliance and their standards but Lala maintained this belief. The thought of Hikaru’s smile, of her mirthful voice and her brilliant imagination was all Lala needed as she came to accept that yes, this was love, this was her spark. Her parents didn’t necessarily discourage this but they were worried. Her bold, free-thinking ways often came into conflict with Mother AI.

Kaka was often saddened, and guilt-trippy, about the fact that her daughter was childfree. Thirteen years wasn’t that long to raise a child to adulthood as Lala was frequently reminded. Anything major could be surrendered to Mother AI for guidance but Lala remained firmly uninterested as she waited.

And she waited.

And she searched.

All for the providence which brought her to an age which may as well have been considered lame and elderly but it was the beginning of a new era for Lala: age twenty-nine. Prunce brought her the news whilst she was on Rainbow: Hoshino Hikaru had made it to the stars once again and in that instant, Lala was fulfilled.

Her pining, her yearning, illuminated her face like nothing else as she rushed to find Hikaru once more.

They met in the atmosphere above the Earth where it was thin and gauzy, the air a greenish blue over endless, cerulean oceans and choppy, mountain ranges and vast plains. The Earth was full of imperfections and oddities and that’s what made it beautiful as suspended in the abyss of space, surrounded by stars, connected by the truest magic that there was across all time and galaxies, Lala and Hikari reached out. Their fingers interconnected and Lala spoke her words hard earned and educated.

『こんにちは~』

It had been difficult but Lala managed to teach herself Japanese. She scraped together what she could from what Mother AI had absorbed from her regarding the language and what the pendant retained but it took a lot of hard work to truly read. To talk and listen and it was all without a practice partner.

But it was worth it to see Hikaru so happy: they could understand each other on their own terms, through their own efforts.

Just like Lala, Hikaru had never given up, she had never stopped hoping and waiting and doing her best to find a way back to where they belonged: next to each other. Debuting Earth on the intergalactic scale could come second to what she wanted most: some quality time with Lala.

Lala certainly had no complaints. Hikaru’s co-captain on the rocket ship that had launched her might have one or two but Hikaru promised. She wouldn’t be too long, maybe a week or a month at most, totally, and that was that. In full costume as an astronaut, hand in hand, Hikaru and Lala found their way back onto the planet of Saman in the blink of an eye.

Truly, there was nothing more heart pounding than teleportation…

For Hikaru, the little, green planet with a ring around it as translucent and latex-like as plastic, Saman hadn’t changed a bit. Lala was inclined to concur but she couldn’t in good faith as she led Hikaru back to her and her parents’ house.

Neither of them used a hoverboard but they watched plenty of them zip and fly about. They caught all kinds of looks on the way. Hikaru was practically a giantess and everyone knew the inspector with twin tails, the former Pretty Cure, was unusual news at best.

“Pardon the intrusion!” Hikaru’s voice rang out as clear as a bell upon arrival.

Kaka and Toto were nonplussed by her arrival, by the silver outwear that she wore and what was tied around her hips, too, as part of her whole costume, the helmet under her arm and the length she had chopped her hair to: a pixie cut. It was a lot to take in. Even for Lala but at the same time, she and Hikaru were on their own little planet.

It was totally out of this world.

It was as though the last fifteen years hadn’t ellipsed at all. They were totally unfazed by the distance which had kept them apart for so long, their souls were truly intertwined like that. Thus, Lala and Hikaru were able to catch up so naturally as they sat around the parlour and summons were put out for Lolo and his side of the family. Snack foods were served up with smiles as they got comfortable.

The heater under the table was warm. The snacks – which consisted of fruits and crackers – were delicious. It was so easy to catch up on all the big things and little things that had gone on whilst they were away from each other but they couldn’t keep themselves off one another.

Lala’s antennae hovered. She pressed the yellow orbs of her antennae against Hikaru here and there, checking that she was fit and healthy. As an astronaut, she was in the peak of her physical condition, of course, but it didn’t hurt to be cautious. Or possessive for that matter.

Hikaru was the same. She propped herself up on the floor with one hand planted between Lala’s crossed legs. Her own under the table, draped with the heated blanket. Her head rested on Lala’s shoulder as they chatted together, more amongst themselves with Lala’s parents watching, struck by how utterly weird the scene was and it was made weirder by how natural it seemed.

Lala had a twin for crying out loud and yet she didn’t even seem as natural there, with her out of the womb pair, than she did right now with this human woman. There was much to learn about humans from the Saman perspective and speaking of Lala’s twin, Lolo arrived with Dodo and Dada promptly enough.

After all, it wasn’t any day of the week that this sort of thing occurred.

Hikaru was, of course, beside herself to meet Lolo again – as well as Dodo and Dada for the first time. Her Saman was clumsy but she managed to get there. She was a quick and clever human who bursted with all kinds of frenetic energy. It was a little intimidating as she greeted and spoke so boisterously and without abandon.

“Hi, hi, it’s good to meet you all.” Hikaru bellowed, grinning.

“Likewise and I must say, I’ve heard much about you, lun.” Dodo said with a curtsey.

“Only good things, I hope.” Hikaru joked and grinned, she tried to greet Dada but at nine years old, Dada hid behind her mother’s skirt.

“Dada, you will be an adult soon, you need to be more sociable, lun.” Dodo gently admonished Dada but it was no use.

Dada was insistent. The safest place was behind Dodo’s white and pale blue, conical skirt. Hikaru didn’t mind. To her, Dada was far from being an adult and honestly, Lala didn’t disagree. Or at least not as much as she would have when she was younger.

Her time on Earth made her realise how truly young she was, even if her lifespan was significantly shorter than a human’s. There was so much to learn, to wander and experience, there was no rush and Dada must have sensed that innately. Either that, or her shyness was truly hampering.

Dada took after Lolo more than Dodo which is a shame as her mother had such eclectically pink hair but pink hair was not a trait that Mother AI likely selected for. And so, Dodo had a bob cut of teal to turquoise hair with a few alternating strands of pinky-purple and yellow. Her eyes were huge and full of stars, a clear blue in colour and a cute face which looked excellent when she smiled but she did so rarely.

Except in Hikaru’s company.

Dada was increasingly fascinated as she got used to being around the stranger. She stared with big, open eyes and a slightly agape mouth as Hikaru yammered on. That made sense. This was her first time meeting an alien and as far as ambassadors for a species went, Hikaru was a good one. She exemplified what it meant to be a human. Free and flawed and loud and full of good intentions and bad executions, she laughed and she apologised as she made conversation in ways which would be considered “rowdy” by Saman standards.

And those standards were suffocating.

The touching, the stolen glances, the way that Hikaru and Lala melded into one another despite this being the first time in fifteen years that they had last seen one another… It simply wasn’t how it was done. They bickered and they flirted. It was utterly in the face of the other Samans at the table as they went back and forth in their dynamic.

“So this is how much you missed me, hmm?” Hikaru teased as she played with Lala’s hair.

Why not? Lala was right there, over her lap, and her twin pigtails were plenty long and bountiful. Hikaru massaged Lala’s scalp and entangled her fingers in the strands of her turquoise hair.

“I didn’t miss you that much, lun.” Lala grouched but her denial was palpable in all the wrong directions, the scant blush as she tried to hide her real feelings. “My mother did my hair like this and I simply never stopped, lun.”

“Is that so?” Hikaru sing-songed. “Well, I missed you lots and lots, my days were so dull without you. I never stopped thinking, I’ll stop at nothing to see my heavenly maiden again.” Her voice dissolved into giggles as she rubbed her nose in Lala, literally, and breathed deep her scent that she had missed.

“O-oyo?” Lala squeaked at such affection, her pale face going redder and redder.

It seemed almost too much to bear. Dodo covered Dada’s eyes, even Kaka and Toto had to look away. But there was something grim to the flirtations that only Lolo noticed: Lala called their mother, their mother instead of her name. Perhaps it was just a small quirk but maybe there was a deeper deviation as Lala became too lost in front of them in the world and atmosphere of the human woman.

Truly, the revelation at the low table was increasingly unpalatable to Lala’s family. Lala had more chemistry, more connection, more spark with this human girl than Lolo and Dodo: romantic partners who had been selected for certainty of compatibility. Hikaru was some random from a backwater planet so insignificant and primitive, they had all been laughed off the face of it fifteen years ago.

Of course, the blowback blew up in their faces but still. The superiority was hard to shake off as they all, reluctantly, admired the love that Lala and Hikaru had for one another. It was going to take some getting used to, especially with it somewhat unknown for how long that Hikaru was going to stay for.

This was neither her nor Lala’s youth after all. They couldn’t jet set around as they had on their rocketship, bouncing planet to planet as the Pretty Cure. They had jobs and responsibilities now but Hikaru did seem to have a little while in mind as she lounged around and spoiled Lala.

“It’s been a wonderful afternoon but we really shall be going, lun.” Dodo hurried, she squeezed Dada’s hand as Dada was once again cowering behind the silhouette of her skirt.

“Indeed, it’s been good to see you all again, lun.” Lolo agreed.

Though, Dodo shot him an inexplicably dirty look at that prompt.

Lolo and Lala said their goodbyes. Then Lolo said goodbye to Kaka and Toto. It all went in circles honestly until Dodo put her foot down and that was that. She helped Dada onto the hover board and Lolo followed behind on his own. Once set off, those who remained behind put themselves to work with cleaning up dishes or rearranging the parlour once more to fit a smaller number of people in the house.

The rest of the evening went without a hitch. Though once they were done cleaning up, they may as well have had dinner and Kaka made food. Though, as expected of Saman, even cooking was an automated process. She pressed a couple of buttons and bingo, she was done but it came out good and piping hot. Hikaru had no complaints, she would eat anything. It all counted as homemade to Lala and Toto.

So after another round of eating and doing the dishes, it was basically time to head to bed. Of course, this now manifested a problem with the sleeping arrangements. There was a converted guest bedroom but with how clingy Hikaru had been, it likely came as no surprise that she had other ideas as Lala tried to sort things out logically. Her parents in their room, her in her own room, and then Hikaru…

“Here, you can sleep here tonight, lun.” Lala yawned as she gestured to Lolo’s old room.

“I was thinking… It’d be nice…” Hikaru flirted. She rested her hand on the wall above Lala and towered over her, with hooded eyes and a smirk, “If we shared a room tonight.”

“O-Oyo?” Lala exclaimed.

This was moving all too quickly but then again… Maybe this was the right pace. They had missed each other so much. There was so much lost time to make up for but still. Lala’s heart could have leapt out of her chest as she discharged electricity on accident in her excitement.

Hikaru laughed and took that as a yes.

Lala smiled a small, and indignant, smile as she took Hikaru by her other hand and led her to the other bedroom. She closed the door behind them and that was that. Hikaru shed more of her outer layers, she pretended not to look whilst Lala slipped into her pyjamas.

There was no point offering Hikaru anything. She was so tall now. Extremely tall by Saman standards. So that was that and they would simply have to put up with it as they shared more than just Lala’s room but her bed, too.

In the darkness, they curled up and into one another. Face to face, lying down on a mat and bedding. It wasn’t too dissimilar to a futon arrangement like Hikaru would be used to back in her homeland of Japan but it had its differences. Still, it was comfortable. Especially when she shared it with Lala.

They became all too aware of the little things about them. How Hikaru had to pull her knees up and in. The sound of how Lala breathed and the lingering static electricity that she generated. Hikaru’s heartbeat. The fabric of Lala’s clothes. It was nice though.

And faraway, somehow, from sleepovers from their youth. Everyone had their own bedroom back then. Lala asked how Elena and Madoka were going. Hikaru asked about Yuni, Prunce, and Fuwa. There was so much to talk about, including things they couldn’t before in the company of Lala’s family but somehow. It kept coming back to each other.

“I’ve… I’ve missed you, lun.” Lala confessed in a quiet voice. “I’ve been so lonely without you, lun.”

“I know, I’m sorry.” Hikaru replied equally as soft as Lala.

Lala held onto Hikaru. She squeezed her eyes tightly closed and inhaled Hikaru’s smell. It was elastic and plasticky, full of smells that she didn’t fully recognise because of how the astronaut costume’s scent lingered on her but still. Underneath it all was what Lala did associate with Hikaru, the smell of Earth and its greenery, fabric softener and more, her musk of sweat. It was delicious.

“Hikaru, I…” Lala couldn’t bring herself to say it. Her words fizzled out on her tongue as she bowed her head into the softness of Hikaru’s breast. Gosh, this was so much better than just touching that photograph that she kept and thinking about Hikaru. It was so, so much better.

Hikaru smiled knowingly. Lala could feel that starshine on the back of her head as they held each other close.

“I know,” Hikaru said, “I love you, too.”

“Oyo?” Lala hiccuped. She snuggled in further, as though trying to be between the fabric of Hikaru’s clothes and her skin. “I love you more, lun.”

Her heart raced as she was so glad to say it. Her mother had been right about her all those years ago. It was love. She was fully, madly, deeply, truly in love and that’s all that mattered. It mattered more than artificial intelligence, than the planetary alliance, than anything and everything. And that was merely the surface of their bond.

“Let’s get some sleep, yeah?” Hikaru said.

“Good idea, lun.” Lala replied and she couldn’t help herself. She yawned.

They fell asleep like that. In one other’s arms and warmth. It was magical. It was as though the night would never end as they slept dreamlessly because the biggest dream of all had finally come true.

But alas, in the morning, the sun shone once more and woke them up. They woke up more or less in synchronicity. The sunshine peeked through the curtains and illuminated Lala’s room in all its pastel greeny-blue hues and the warmth of their shared bedding dissipated the more that they moved.

They greeted one another, sleepy and groggy. Hikaru’s fingers to the orbs of Lala’s antennae and somehow missed. That only made them laugh but still. As did the terrible bedheads they were rocking and the horrid cricks in their arms and bodies. Sleeping like that did a number on them but was absolutely worth it.

They took turns having showers, getting changed, before meeting Lala’s parents at breakfast. They were certainly bright eyed and bushy tailed compared to the young ones in the household. Kaka and Toto excitedly made conversation with Hikaru and trying to keep up with all those new Saman words perked Hikaru up better than any espresso coffee.

“So, do you have plans for today, lun?” Kaka asked.

“I dunno, have a walk around, visit the tourist spots, maybe.” Hikaru joked.

Toto nodded his head decisively, “You should go and visit Mother AI, lun. That would be a good idea, lun.”

Lala’s skin crawled. Partially with embarrassment, she didn’t want Hikaru to know how their bond had altered part of Mother AI’s database, and partially because she was cursed with freedom. Having experienced other ways of living, ways of living she had once considered primitive or dowdy, she had come to find a certain allure in. And it was all thanks to Hikaru, so the idea of subjecting her to that made Lala uneasy and again. The one little, made-up word.

Kirayaba.

It became trendy on Saman but after a while, the trend lost its lustre. Hikaru, and the other Pretty Cure, became little more than an urban legend, a factoid in a digital encyclopaedia that no one opened and no one read.

But when Hikaru got an idea into her head, it became her way or the highway. So, that’s what today’s plan became at Toto’s recommendation. Besides, a short – or long – walk to Mother AI’s station sounded like a great way to stretch their legs and see those tourist sights that Hikaru wanted to see.

So, after breakfast, Hikaru and Lala set off. An additional recommendation given to them was that they take a hoverboard but no such luck. Lala had weaned herself off them ages ago and wanted to show Hikaru her improved stamina. Hikaru, meanwhile, was practically an athlete after all the rigour she went through during her astronaut training and she wanted to show that off.

Unsurprisingly, taking their time to stop and smell the flowers along the side of the road and taking in the sights of Saman fell to the wayside but it felt good to enjoy the friction of their rivalry. For old times sake, of course. They had started out butting heads and though they were a long way away from that, sometimes old habits died hard.

The weather on Saman was chilly. Pleasantly so, of course, and took the edge off the sweat and effort of racing through the streets. It was there, along shop fronts and such that they copped all kinds of stares as the long lost heroines of the cosmos were back and in full force as far as the civilian population was concerned.

Mother AI might have had a different perspective.

When they arrived at the main building of Saman, Mother AI was there, suspended in green and in liquid. The pulsating heart of unfathomably complex technology.

Lala and Hikaru were welcomed with open arms. The technicians who worked tirelessly on Mother AI’s system, updates, and machinery greeted them with waves of their antenna and a buzz of electricity. Hikaru waved back like she was a celebrity until the roving floors took her and Lala to where they needed to be.

The hall was cold and grand. The lighting inside was a sickly and mysterious, uranium green which was near radioactive. The ceilings were high and there was no natural light. The tiling that surrounded them was polished to an unbelievable degree of sparkling cleanliness. The two women stood in front of Mother AI who awoke to their presence.

“There were no scheduled summons for Hagomoro Lala today.” Mother AI observed.

“We’ve come to give you more information on the outside, lun.” Lala stated.

Hikaru waved hello as she announced herself in Japanese. This intrigued Mother AI who instructed her to the plate. Hikaru stepped upon it and allowed herself to be scanned by Mother AI.

Lala watched contemptuously. Her gaze was steady as she stood to the side with folded arms. She tapped her foot. Hikaru giggled.

“This feels so kirayaba!” Hikaru squealed.

Mother AI made a pleased noise, like the chiming of a digital bell. The scan finished and Hikaru stepped off the plate. She placed her arms at her side.

“Adding the language “Japanese” to all personal AIs…” Mother AI noted.

“Ooh, that’ll be helpful, right, Lala?” Hikaru asked.

“I haven’t worn my personal AI in years…” Lala admitted.

“Sending Hagoromo Lala new choices for a mate.” Mother AI continued. “Seven new choices have been detected.”

“Oyo?!” Lala screeched.

Hikaru blinked, “A mate…?”

“Er, yes, lun.” Lala hesitated. She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, irritated. “Mother AI has been trying to set me up for a boyfriend nonstop any time I get home, lun. She says my biological clock is ticking, lun.”

“Ehh.” Hikaru marvelled but there was something about the airiness of her expression and tone of voice which Lala knew masked betrayal.

There was the slightest glimmer of it in Hikaru’s pink eyes. Lala clicked her tongue. She put her hands on her hips. They had never said it explicitly but it had always been simmering underneath their understanding of one another.

Human children were still children at thirteen. Human adults and the elderly could live to old, ripe ages where they were bearded and grey, with wrinkly skin and inefficiently jointed, muscled, and more. The same could not be said of Saman.

Saman children became adults at thirteen. Saman adults didn’t often age past what humans would consider mid-stagedly young. Lala and Hikaru looked similar for now but had a vast gulf of difference between them in life span so for Lala’s biological clock to be ticking at twenty-nine, that meant something far graver to Lala than Hikaru who had more time on this mortal coil.

So when Lala put her foot down, she was warning Hikaru just as much as she was warning Mother AI.

“Cease, lun!” Lala announced, “I’m not interested, lun!”

With that, Lala stormed off and Hikaru had no choice but to follow along behind her. She at the very least said goodbye to Mother AI but Mother AI made no response. A gurgle of bubbles in her tank, likely a coincidence, how eerie, but nothing else.

Lala strode with her nose in the air and a furrow to her eyebrows. Hikaru had to jog to keep up with her. They shrugged off all the Saman workers who had greeted them before as they stepped out and into the fresh air.

“Hang on, what’s going on?” Hikaru said. “I thought you loved your personal AI.”

“It became a nuisance, lun.” Lala snapped.

To better converse, they tucked themselves to the corner of the greenspace at the edge of the main building’s perimeter. Here, they could talk underneath a wiry tree and watched the tiny lifeforms of Saman scurry about. Even on Saman, they had things that Hikaru could consider similar to birds and squirrels. Lala, meanwhile, was testy.

She folded her arms in front of her again and tapped her foot. Hikaru tilted her head in confusion.

“Is everything okay?” she asked.

Storm clouds all but literally gathered over Lala’s head. Her antennae turned stiff as she gazed far out and over the city skyline of Saman. Well and truly past Hikaru, into the azure of the skies overhead and the slice of the planet’s ring but even beyond there, the enormity and uniqueness of Saman, into space.

“I love you, Hikaru.” Lala stated. That was the short and long of it. She even forewent her usual, Saman tic to emphasise just how Hikaru had changed her.

She had held onto Hikaru for so long. For reasons that didn’t even compute with Saman. They were the same sex but they were different species. They were anomalies that numbers couldn’t make sense of.

Lala exhaled and she plucked something from the breast pocket of her outfit, she extended her hand forth to Hikaru to offer her a photograph of their teenage selves. It was beaten and battered. Faded. But above all, it was well loved. Even as it got rough around the edges and lost its sheen, Hikaru couldn’t help but marvel at how much Lala had cherished it to keep it on her person for so long.

“I wanted to talk to you, so I taught myself to speak Japanese, lun.” Lala explained. “I wanted to live like you, so I gave up the personal AI and started to walk everywhere, lun. I wanted to love you so I kept giving up what I had wanted since I was a child: to fit in, lun. To be given all the promises that my brother was given by Mother AI, lun. Now, I’m Mother AI’s favourite child and she has released the reins but there are some Samans who disagree, who think she should remain in complete control, lun. Those people, resistant to change, even what I think is good change, even attack me, saying I’m a bad influence and not a hero at all, lun. I’m at a loss, lun. I’m always going to be the zero outsider, lun… Even though I’m Cure Milky, forever and always, a Pretty Cure and… and your partner, lun.”

“Lala…” Hikaru breathed.

She accepted the photograph. She admired it and thoughtlessly, she traced where Lala stood in the photograph with her own fingers, deft and slender. It could have made Lala’s heart sing. They really were in perfect unison as partners.

“When I… When I go home, do you want to come with me?” Hikaru asked.

“Please, lun.” Lala’s voice frayed as she held back tears. “Even though I… Even though, lun, you and I… We are so very different, lun.”

Hikaru nodded. She meant it. Every word of it. And that made Lala so bitter and ungrateful as she sobbed.

Lala didn’t mean to cry. Let alone loudly or sadly. It just happened. All of Lala’s love and complicated feelings towards her home planet came to a head. She didn’t want to be emotional, she wanted to be logical, a square peg in a square hole but she was anything but. She cried hot, wet tears and she clawed at her face. Hikaru, still holding onto the photograph, leapt in and wrapped her arms around Lala. She held her tightly, her head beside Lala’s and helped calm Lala down.

They went home shortly after that. Hand in hand. A gentle swing as they walked. This time, they stopped and smelled the flowers, they admired the sights of Saman. For all its flaws, Saman was still a beautiful planet full of untold wonders and magnificent technology, kind and friendly people and cute, little animals.

When they got back to Lala and her parents’ place, they spent the afternoon making arrangements for Lala to have a long term stay elsewhere. She packed a suitcase, she wrote her last will and testament just in case she didn’t ever make it back after running away with her lover.

It wasn’t the time yet to leave, though, and they didn’t tell Kaka or Toto of these plans just yet. But the preparation was still there, neatly packed into suitcases and luggage, and it made Lala’s heart pound with trepidation and excitement. She hoped it would be soon though, that she and Hikaru could embark on this journey.

As part of her work as an inspector, and even simply having a long maintained friendship with Yuni, Lala had left Saman plenty of times but this felt different. Freeing somehow. She looked forward to saying goodbye and embarking on a new round of adventures with Hikaru.

But first, she had to be good and let Hikaru have her fill of Saman. It was only right. Lala had spent so long on Earth and by comparison, Hikaru had hardly spent any time on Saman and the next day, she got a good opportunity to get out and about and mingle with the locals.

“Hello, would anyone be available to babysit Dada whilst we are at work today, lun?” Lolo asked over the visual telecommunications system in the house.

He and Dodo’s faces lit up on the television-like screen which hung over the dining room table in Kaka and Toto’s house. Lolo was his usual self: smiley but a little smarmy. The same of which could be said of Dodo, she was also acting like her usual self, huddled inwards, seemingly fidgeting with her hands off camera. Dada did not make an appearance, however.

But with a boisterous yes, Hikaru replied, “We would love to take care of Dada whilst you two are away!”

So it was settled quickly. Dada would leave home and come around to spend time with her grandparents, as well as her aunt and her aunt’s human friend. She arrived within the next half an hour via a hoverboard and with her mother’s supervision.

“Stay safe, lun.” Dodo said. Her hand lingered on her daughter’s shoulder.

This time, unlike the day before yesterday when Dada was introduced to Hikaru, Dada showed a bit more bravery. Though she still clung to her mother’s dress, she was standing side by side with Dodo rather than behind her and in hiding.

“Welcome, welcome, lun.” Lala said. “We’ll have a good day today, lun.”

Dada nodded and Dodo relented. She was going to be late for work if she dawdled any longer so she said goodbye and entrusted her daughter to Lala and Hikaru.

The morning was then spent lounging around the house. Mostly in relaxation but partly in education. Lala encouraged Dada to open up the digital encyclopaedias present via her personal AI and explore them but Dada was hesitant. She remained enamoured with Hikaru, however.

She wanted to know everything and anything there was to know about Earth and not even a personal AI assistant had anything on a living, breathing alien who was hanging out in the parlour with the little girl. More and more, Dada came out of her shell as Hikaru relayed all the different things from her homeworld and Lala made sure to give her input on what she had learned on Earth, too.

Dada’s eyes were huge and full of wonder, so much more enriched than when Lala had just tried to get her to listen to an audio book. The oral accounts of their wild days as Pretty Cure was so much more entertaining. Even when Dada’s stomach growled and when her grandparents were calling her in for lunch, she was difficult to reef up and off floor because she was so in love with the stories of Earth.

After lunch, Hikaru and Lala came to about the same conclusion: getting out and about in the good weather made sense. Dada was full of energy, too, coming from a big lunch and a morning spent at neutral, sitting around and such. So, they headed to the park to possibly put in practice the games that Hikaru and Lala had told Dada all about.

Not too far from Lala and her parents house was a park. It was within walking distance but Dada did complain it was too far but neither Hikaru nor Lala wanted to get on a hoverboard when there was plenty of good exercise to be had just from walking. They passed by the different Saman houses but they weren’t all that different to one another. Residential copy cats, cut and pasted like words on a keyboard.

But the park was nice.

It was big and wide, the perimeter was meted out by a flowing, white fence and the area brimmed with tall, shady trees. There were sandy, weaving paths to walk throughout and a cute, little playground. They had a slide and some monkeybars, a flying fox and the like. It looked safe but fun. There was plenty of room to run and jump and play but for some reason, even on a beautiful day which was uncharacteristically warm and full of sunshiney brilliance, the three of them were the only visitors.

“Guess everyone’s busy, huh?” Hikaru mused as she looked around.

“Not really, lun.” Lala said. “Most people are either working and those who are not are probably inside, lun.”

“What a shame but that means more fun for us.” Hikaru decided.

They got started on playing with that. They did some warm-up stretches and such, Dada poorly followed the instruction and lead of Hikaru with Lala faring not much better. But they tried and that effort meant so much more than just not trying.

Once warmed up, Hikaru and Lala supervised Dada as she played on the various play equipment provided. She went down the slides, flew back and forth on the flying fox, and swings. She was a little nervous at first, some of the equipment was tall and daunting but with just a thumbs up from Hikaru or a smile from Lala, she found the courage that she needed to give it ago but it became apparent.

She wanted to play with them. Not the hunks and chunks of plastic and metal that spiralled and grew out of the ground in all their child safe glory. And from such big and pleading eyes such as Dada’s, Hikaru and Lala had no choice as they pulled out all kinds of games from their arsenal of youth.

They played red light, green light and tag. Raced around in the grass and hid behind trees. It was silly and full of screams and screeches but remained relatively light hearted. Even as the rules of these games gave way more and more to unstructured playtime that Dada initiated.

Since Dada was a kid, she had plenty of energy to spend but as a Saman, little stamina to pair with it. She was especially outclassed compared to her adult playmates. They were going easy on her, after all, that was the point and for what its worth, Lala was somewhat close in ability to her but Lala had given herself plenty of personal challenges over the years to catch up to Hikaru who was lightyears away compared to them.

Her strength, her speed, her agility: she was practically a titan on Saman and Dada lapped it up. She didn’t mind whatsoever if she won or she lost, so long as she was playing alongside Hikaru – and Lala, too.

After all, Dada grew up in the shadow of some very interesting stories. She knew all about Cure Milky. She knew about the others, too – Cure Star, Cure Soleil, Cure Selene, and Cure Cosmo – and the kinds of adventures they had together. The worlds they had saved, the forces of darknesses vanquished and healed. Dada found it all so out of this world and inspiring. Hikaru and Lala were glad to be such beacons of light, even to Dada who came more and more out of her shell the more she listened to these stories.

Stories they unpacked as they watched the skies and how they morphed in the afternoon light. Clouds floated past as they laid down in the grass and felt a cool breeze on their faces, the perfect relaxation after so much sweat and fun.

“Hikaru, Lala, what was it like being Pretty Cure, lun?” Dada asked.

“Oi, oi, what’s with this, c’mon, Auntie Hikaru, try it, Auntie Hikaru. It’s weird for a kid to be calling someone my age just my name.” Hikaru playfully complained.

Lala shot her a pouty look. It was also probably a dirty look but come on. It was Lala. She was too cute to be too filthy over Hikaru introducing Dada to some quirks and lingo from Earth.

“Really, lun?” Dada asked.

She rolled over and got onto her belly. She kept her elbows tucked in as she planked on the ground: her huge eyes bored straight into Lala and Hikaru. They looked up at Dada from upside down.

“Yeah, totally.” Hikaru said.

“Okay, then, lun.” Dada said. “Auntie Hikaru, Auntie Lala, what was it like being Pretty Cure?”

Hikaru smirked as she glanced at Lala, love in her eyes, “Oh, it was the best. The best days of our life, no doubt.”

“We are still plenty young, lun.” Lala disagreed, mildly fuming, and kind of lying, too. “So surely, there is still a lot of the best to come, lun.”

Dada observed the interaction like a scientist. In just the exchange, she could sense the tension that existed between Lala and Hikaru. How much they liked each other, how much they changed each other, how much they had waited for each other. It was enormous, she could hardly fathom it and to be fair, it had Lala unravelling.

She wasn’t like other Saman. Not anymore. Maybe she had never been despite how hard she had tried to fit in. To make her numbers and her worth go up. Instead, she exceeded all expectations by becoming something incredibly improbable: a Pretty Cure.

And now, the electrical shock of it all continued to illuminate a strange and peculiar path. Not just for her but for Dada, too. Quite possibly for many more Saman, too. Saman folks she knew and those she didn’t.

“When I grow up, lun…” Dada began, nervous and ambling. “Can I be like you two, lun?”

“Yes, of course, lun.” Lala said.

“Really, lun?” Dada asked for confirmation. “Be-Because, Dodo, she… She… She’s so worried for me, lun. I stress her out so much, lun…”

Lala’s heart took a thunderbolt. This tone of voice, the tremble in Dada’s body language. Lala knew it all too well. It was so similar to how she had been at a similar age to Dada when she received news of her placing in the social hierarchy, in Mother AI’s perfectly calculated society.

Dada lifted herself onto her knees. She picked up a trinket around her neck and it lit up in a soft, melon soda green glow. She showed off the screen ashamedly as she revealed that she wasn’t exactly the golden child promised to her parents. That she wasn’t destined for greatness, just somewhere in the middle.

Better than her, Lala thought bitterly but still. She couldn’t discount the anxiety in Dada’s hands, in her eyes and her heart that anything less than the best may as well be an outright atrocity in her parents and society’s eyes.

“I… I don’t wanna be a second-hand store attendant when I grow up, lun.” Dada said. “I… I wanna be like Dodo, a computer technician, lun.”

“You can be whatever you want when you grow up, Dada.” Hikaru said. She got up and she inched closer to Dada.

She reached out, softly, almost maternal, as she caressed Dada’s face and took the necklace off her. Dada bowed her head and her personal AI was removed. Hikaru tossed it to Lala.

“Whaddya think?” Hikaru asked. “Do you think Dada can be whatever she wants when she grows up?”

“Yes, yes, of course, lun.” Lala said. She held the object like it was made of a toxic material even though it looked so colourful, cute, and harmless.

“I-I’m glad, Auntie Lala, Auntie, Hikaru, because…” Dada began to blush, she fidgetted. “My greatest dream, lun… Is to be like you, a Pretty Cure, lun.”

Lala smiled, she pressed her fingers hard into the round object and it turned off, “I have no doubt if the galaxy’s peace was ever threatened, lun… You would be wondrous and courageous, lun.”

“Th-Thank you!” Dada said, excited. She practically vibrated now. “I-I even picked out a name!”

“Ooh?” Hikaru intoned with a quirked eyebrow.

Lala had noticed it, too. More than just Dada’s excitement, the grin on her face, but the way she had dropped the Saman tic of “lun”. It was bittersweet but if she was going to be promised something, everything and anything, her own path, was better than the nothing that Mother AI intended to give her.

“Y-Yeah!” Dada exclaimed. “I’m gonna be… Cure Timepiece! Colour Charge: the flow of time that canvases space!”

Hikaru applauded the effort. Dada had it all, a transformation cry and a little pose that she did as well. It was all rehearsed and Lala couldn’t help herself. She beamed with pride. Her eyes watered as she clapped Dada’s – no, Cure Timepiece’s – efforts.

“You’ll be whaling on baddies in no time with that kind of expression.” Hikaru said. “I bet… It makes you feel like you can stand up to anyone, even your mama or papa.”

“Oyo?” both Lala and Dada exclaimed.

“Too far?” Hikaru guessed. Perhaps.

After all, it was Lala’s nearest and dearest wish for peace, for harmony. It shouldn’t be up to Dada at all to have to pick up the pieces and do it all over again. It was an unprecedented era of prosperity that all the known worlds had entered into following the actions of Star Twinkle Pretty Cure.

With Hikaru here on Saman with them, it wouldn’t be too long at all that Earth was brought into the fold as well. Every day, all kinds of changes and advancements were being made. It caused friction. It caused absurdity, it was both good and bad, exciting and scary.

Little moments like this, playing with the future adults of the galaxy, intertwined it all.

Hikaru picked herself up off the ground. She offered her hand to Dada and Dada accepted it. They played some more games which were closer to tag than not again where Dada could pretend that she really was her ideal self as Cure Timepiece. It was a lot of fun. There was lots of laughing and chasing until Dada was all tuckered out.

Until she mustn’t have been able to move an inch. She bent over, hands on her knees, looking pale as she panted. Hikaru had hardly lost her breath but Lala was struggling to keep up. It was also beginning to get late. The afternoon was giving way to dusk. By the time they walked home, had a snack, Lala was willing to bet it would be close to Dada’s bedtime, quite frankly and that her parents would be back to pick her up.

“Want a piggy back ride?” Hikaru offered Dada.

“A what-what ride?” Dada asked.

“She wants to carry you on her back, lun.” Lala said and then added a translation, “Piggy is a pet name for an Earth animal called a “pig”, they live in mud and have four legs with hooves, lun.”

Her description did little to conjure an image of the animal in Dada’s mind. Especially since Hikaru helped Dada up and onto her back, that only distorted it further in Dada’s imagination but she closed her eyes to rest. It felt nice. Hikaru’s back was lithe and warm, she could be comfortable here as she was carried and she drifted in and out of daydreams as to what a piggy could look like.

Lala and Hikaru walked back with Dada like that. Up from where they had come from, around a corner or two. Nice and slow. There was no rush but at the end of it was the surprise of seeing Lolo and Dodo so soon.

They waved them both hello with their antennae as they waited in the front garden of Kaka and Toto’s house. They looked worn from a long day’s work at the office but were pleased to see their daughter brought back and in such peace. Hikaru smiled gently as she helped Dada down.

Jostled, Dada woke up. She pawed at her eyes sleepily, “I’m hungry, lun…”

“She’s been excellent all day, lun.” Lala said.

“Yup, definitely worked up an appetite with all that playing at the park, too.” Hikaru added with a chuckle.

Dodo, at first, seemed pleased by these reports but like a good mother, she noticed instantly that something was wrong. That something was different even as she stepped forward to take custody of Dada only to realise that something was missing.

“Did you have a good day today, lun?” Dodo asked.

“Y-Yeah, a really good day, lun.” Dada nervously agreed but her mother’s tremendous study of her was intimidating.

Even born of the best intentions, Dodo was intense. She came down to her knees to better face Dada. Not that Dada was much shorter than her but eye contact was important as she tried to repress the obvious, rising worry in her eyes. A franticness to the pink of them. She took Dada’s hands and squeezed them, their antennae mutually responding to the stimuli with a rise and fall, a crackle of mild electricity.

“Dada, excuse me, but where’s your personal AI, lun?” Dodo asked as she searched her daughter’s person for the trinket. There was a budding, frantic energy to her movements which were sharp and jerky.

Dada hid away from her mother as she shyly admitted, “I… I don’t wanna wear it anymore, lun.”

“But what if you ever get in trouble, or need something, lun?” Dodo insisted. “Where is it, lun? Put it back on, lun.”

“No, lun.” Dada snapped with quibbling lips. “I-I don’t wanna wear it, I wanna be like Auntie Lala and Auntie Hikaru, lun.”

“Auntie…?” Dodo repeated.

The word was foreign to her and yet, in her ear, her personal AI chirped. It explained that Dada had picked up the new lingo which originated from the human world of Earth. That she had absorbed the bonds of a culture which was not fully hers, but she was Lala’s niece and Lala was an oddball.

A dangerous oddball.

“Dada, I don’t want you spending time with Lala or Hikaru, anymore, lun.” Dodo said sharply and Lala knew that tone.

She had heard it all before. From the conservatives and traditionalists of Saman, who rejected her as an aberration of what the natural order should be: rigidly calculated and logged by artificial intelligence. It didn’t matter what strata they from, if they were fellow zeroes like Lala who were jealous that she had broken the mould or those closer to Lolo or Dodo, who revelled in all the system’s boons because they had won it. They had earned it. Someone like Lala, who was so outside the system, earned both these opinions ire and Lala now realised.

Dodo was one of them.

One of people who had blind faith in Mother AI and beyond, that was her culture, that was her religion and her reason for being, her everything. It was what had given her a good job, a good husband, a good daughter but now. Lala, her sister-in-law, threatened that and if Lala threatened that, what did that make Lolo, her twin? Or Dada, her niece? The contamination of corruption terrified Dodo.

Lala could see it written on Dodo’s face. The disgust, the fear. It was ugly and made the stars of Dodo’s eyes repulsive. It hurt deeply. Because even though they had never truly clicked, they were still family, weren’t they? Because some machine said so and made the match of Lolo and Dodo. Lala’s stomach churned and she let go.

She was full of cowardice. She couldn’t say a word as Dodo tugged Dada along and ripped her from her side.

“We’re leaving, lun.” Dodo snipped.

“Huh? Wait, don’t go, we can talk things out-” Hikaru tried to protest.

“Absolutely not, lun.” Dodo snarled. “I don’t want you teaching Dada your savage ways, lun.”

“Savage?” Hikaru echoed, harrowed by the accusation.

But it was Dada who took it the worst. She tugged – hard – on her mother’s hand and jerked her about. She let go and her expression was horrific. Torn between the two halves of the family that she loved. Her eyes welled up with tears as her lips peeled back.

“D-Don’t call them that!” Dada yelled.

She ran off, crying and timid. Dodo could only stand there, dumbly, fixating on what they had all not heard: a “lun” at the end of her sentence. Yet another rejection of where Dada belonged, the planet of Saman.

Stiffly, Dodo turned with accusatory eyes unto Hikaru and Lala, “What have you done, lun?”

“I-I can fix this.” Hikaru promised.

She ran off and gave chase to Dada. Dodo could only stand in horror and in awe as Hikaru sped off. She vibrated where she stood and Lala inched closer. She didn’t know what to say. What to do. But like Hikaru, she had to try.

Lala’s antennae lifted and the bulbs generated with crackling, yellowy-white electricity. She tried to coax Dodo to complete the greeting but Dodo turned on her. She turned on her heel and gazed sharply into the distance with reckless and furious abandon.

“I am not going to let that human touch my daughter and further infect her with your dangerous ideas, lun.” Dodo said.

Lala nodded. Her stomach sank. That was fair enough.

She let Dodo leave. She requested a hoverboard via her personal assistant and within mere seconds, she had it. She stepped atop of it and zoomed off. Though Hikaru and Dada had the head start, she far outclassed them with a whoosh of wind and a crackle of static electricity.

This left Lala in the dust and Lala clamoured for something to do to alleviate the guilt she felt. She blinked. She let her feelings settle. She knew what she had to do. If she wanted to find a route to reconciliation, to not make things worse, then what she had to do was talk to Lolo.

Harrowed by the argument and its aftermath, Lala made her way back inside but unsurprisingly, the commotion had brought out Lolo and their parents. They bristled with questions and concern. Lala’s poor expression and fugue demeanour didn’t help.

“Where’s Dodo, lun?” Lolo asked. “Where’s Dada, lun?” His hands trembled as he feared the worst.

Kaka and Toto reacted, hands in front of mouths, eyebrows upturned. It made Lala feel terrible. Her hands curled into fists, she trembled.

“I’m sorry, lun.” Lala said. “I… I did it again, lun. I-I’ll always be like this, lun. The wrench in the perfect machine, of Mother AI’s perfect plans, lun. And it's because of me that… That Dodo, she, lun…”

“Oh, Lala, no, sweetheart, don’t talk about yourself like that, lun.” Kaka worried immediately.

She and Toto blustered past Lolo who was still dumbstruck by the conundrum he was in. Kaka and Toto surrounded Lala, they hugged her. Hard. Deep.

“We are so sorry if we ever made you feel second-class to Lolo, lun.” Toto said as he held Lala firmly. “You are our precious daughter, lun. One of a kind and we wouldn’t trade anything about you for the world, not now, not ever, not even back then, lun.”

“Th-Thank you, lun.” Lala soapily replied.

Lolo stared at her, through the nook left by Toto and Kaka’s embrace of her. He stewed, guiltily then spoke up.

“Kaka, Toto, may I have a moment with Lala, lun?” he requested.

Their parents slowly unwound themselves from around Lala’s body. They exchanged a glance and nodded. They allowed the twins to have a moment that they needed. Ever a gentleman, Lala and Lolo took their blues inside whilst their parents could wait for news of Dodo, Dada, and Hikaru’s reappearance. Perhaps even go looking for them if the situation turned yet more terse but for now.

A breather.

But even then, Lala had her qualms. Her stomach churned as she and Lolo went inside. They stood in the living room. It had once been their rumpus room, full of toys and trinkets. It was a place which Lala recalled that Lolo would bully and tease her, her parents assuming she started every fight and argument. The past couldn’t be changed but the future could and it started here. With a dialogue, with an embrace.

“About Dodo, lun,” Lala began, “I’m sorry, I think she’s a good match for you, really, lun. I’m glad she became part of our family, lun.” She was making excuses. They both knew it. “But she- we, lun… We had a fight, lun.”

Lala had only the best intentions. She wanted to get along. She really, truly did but she was an unusual personality on Saman. She had her controversies, no hero ever went without one or two.

“Mm, I love Dodo, I do, lun.” Lolo agreed. “I think we are perfect for each other in every way, lun. I’m thankful to Mother AI for pairing us up in the matchmaking scheme, lun. For giving us our own paths to success, lun.”

Lolo’s voice was full of musings. Lala got nervous. She hoped that the others would be home soon. She fidgetted with her fingers and her antennae, poking and prodding, threading and unthreading. Lolo stared right at her, so she ceased, jolted and her shoulders pushed back.

“Oyo?” Lala said upon the prompt.

“I don’t think you and Dodo were wrong to fight, each of us have our own destinities, our own inspirations, lun. And Lala?” Lolo paused.

“Yes, lun?”

“You inspire me, lun.” Lolo said, confessing in a small voice. “Mother AI might have always been right about me, lun, “but it’s always been wrong about you, lun.”

Lala’s heart stirred. She grew up in her perfect older brother’s shadow for so long, to hear these words were like a dream come true but it was a shame. She was well and truly past the age where she needed to hear them. She was on her own path. She always had been, the naysayers only weighed her down and this apology was a little too late but she would be grateful, if only to her past self who had lived for this day.

“Now I want to try and live like you, lun.” Lolo said. “I need to go and talk to Dodo, lun.”

“Good luck, lun.” Lala replied.

They emerged from inside the house’s living room and back into the front garden of the house. A cold gale blew and the front gate opened with a creak. In their time away from the others, good fortune had smiled upon them and the others had returned.

Hikaru, Dodo, and Dada all looked like they had been dragged in after a storm. Hikaru grimaced whilst Dodo firmly held Dada’s hand. Dada’s eyes were glued to the ground, her head hung in shame as her mother’s wrath centralised not on her but on Lala, on Lolo, and perhaps even Kaka and Toto.

“Lolo, we need to have a discussion as soon as we get home, lun.” Dodo stated in icy hotness, through gritted teeth and furrowed brows.

“Dodo, please don’t be mad at Lolo, lun…” Dada said in a small voice.

“Dodo, allow us to look after Dada, lun,” Kaka said as she surged forward, hand on her heart, “I think it's best if you and Lolo discuss the issues you're having now rather than later, lun.”

Dodo took this advice suspiciously at best. Dada squeezed her mother’s hand: an unsaid please. Lolo met his wife’s gaze and Dodo relented.

“Keep her away from Hikaru and Lala, please, lun.” Dodo said.

“As you wish, lun.” Kaka said.

Dada shuffled in her shoes as she was handed from one authority figure to another. She glanced longingly at Dodo and then another glance sideways at Hikaru who wordlessly encouraged her to go along with what the adults were saying.

Dodo strode forth and Lolo extended his antennae forward to meet her. She ignored him all the same as she ignored Lala’s similar gesture of peace. They went inside and that was that.

Kaka gave a strained look to Hikaru and Lala. They took the hint gracefully. Toto wrapped his arm around the small of Kaka’s back and they took their granddaughter elsewhere. In times like this, a little bit of fresh air could go the distance so they took Dada on a walk.

Admittedly, none of them got far. Kaka and Toto had no stamina. Dada was plumbtuckered out from her big day but still, for the three of them to take some time and sit under a tree on the corner of the street’s block probably meant a lot to them and their grandparent-grandchild bond as the adults sorted themselves out.

Lala and Hikaru were unsure what to do with themselves, for example. They couldn’t yet hear anything coming from inside the house so that was probably a good thing. If Lolo and Dodo got into a screaming match, that could be the end of days in all honesty.

“Do you have any last words you need to get in to have your peace?” Hikaru asked.

Lala thought for a moment. Until the curtain closed and the arguments came to their conclusion, she didn’t think she could settle and have peace. She shook her head.

“No, I don’t think so, lun.” Lala replied. She turned her head and met Hikaru’s gaze. “What about you, lun?”

“I found Dada first.” Hikaru said. “It wasn’t hard. She’d run out of strength to keep going. She was crying. She wanted her mom. But she wanted her aunt, too. She didn’t know why “aunt” was a dirty word. She saw herself, in that moment, as Dada: the girl who’s favourite colour is pink and wants to be a Pretty Cure when she grows up, niece to an alien, daughter of Saman, the next generation. All that jazz. Or at least, that’s how I took it.”

“I’m sorry we scared her, lun.” Lala mumbled.

“And inspired her, showed her there’s a lotta space out there for her to discover. After all,” Hikaru’s voice wrinkled with amused irony, “she’ll be an adult soon. She’ll need to learn to think for herself, examine all the information and decide critically what is the truth, what is her twinkle imagination. Between you and her mom and everyone else she meets, I think she’ll grow up well and be a good adult.”

It’d only take four more years and then bingo, Dada would be thirteen. On Saman, that’s a full grown adult. They grow up so fast.

A smile tugged on Lala’s lips. Things were going to be alright. She had trust in that.

“Let’s go inside, lun.” Lala suggested.

“Yeah, see if the fireworks are over.” Hikaru agreed.

They crept inside past the veranda and the automatic sliding door. The house was eerily quiet. The temperature of which had gone way down, too. It was practically freezing as the silence took hold.

Lala could only imagine what back and forth might have taken place since then. Lolo loved her. He loved his wife, too, but he had loved his sister first: they were twins after all. But still. It could be anything from the cold, hard truth to heartachingly untrue lies.

And then.

A noise from the living room. Hands slammed onto the table. There was a sharp echo. Then muffled voices. Feminine and masculine, hissed breath and pitched down so they would at least have some resemblance of decorum as an argument appeared to be in full swing.

Lala’s stomach dropped. She tried to reinforce her courage but her feelings were too flimsy. Then there was Hikaru who was entirely out of touch and socially unaware.

“Huh? Are they having a domestic?” Hikaru asked in way too loud a voice.

Lala grabbed her by the synthetic collar and dragged her down, she stuck a finger in front of her lips and hissed, “Shhhh.”

Hikaru laughed apologetically as they couldn’t help themselves in the end. They pressed onwards and stayed close to the wall. There was no obstruction from the hallway to living room as they peered around the corner of the hallway and watched as Lolo and Dodo had a moment to themselves. The troubled lovebirds seemingly unaware that they had an audience as they went back and forth in dispute.

The tensions in the room were high. Expressions were fraught and contentious but it was good that they were talking. Really talking. Even if it seemed so worrisome as arms swept outwards, voices were raised, and tears were on the verge of being shed.

“Did you ever love me, lun?” Lolo asked. “Or were you doing what you were told, lun?”

“I… I don’t know, lun.” Dodo said. “Your family scares me, lun. Your sister is a bad influence, lun.”

Lala’s heart took an arrow. Hikaru rubbed her shoulder. Lala couldn’t say she disagreed. All her life she had been a zero until she turned those decimals into the kind of miracle that spawns unbelievable mythology. Of course someone like Dodo, so far flung in the reaches of Saman and its cultures, wouldn’t get it.

It was new territory but it wasn’t new at all. It was the old way, before artificial intelligence. It was the way that so many planets in the solar system and beyond knew and understood. Saman was the only place which did it like this, so rigid and numbers oriented with lives and destinies doled out on a rattling of code.

“Why is she a bad influence, lun?” Lolo asked. “She saved the whole world, no, the whole known and unknown universe as one of the five Pretty Cure, lun. I’m proud to call her my sister, lun. And I’m proud to call you my wife, lun. I would call you the love of my life and in every life I could have ever lived, I know we are meant to be together, with or without what brought us together, lun.”

“Lolo, lun…” Dodo breathed in shock and awe of Lolo’s passionate words.

“What’s so bad about living our lives the way we want to live them, lun?” Lolo asked. “Whether it is as Mother AI desires or whether it is us, chasing our own connection, our own spark.”

At that word, Lolo’s antennae lit up. They crackled with mint coloured electricity. The way the crackles danced along the insulated membrane mesmerised Dodo as she became entranced by Lolo’s words.

“Dodo, listen to me: I love you, lun.” Lolo said. His voice broke. His heart shattered. “I have loved you since we met, lun, and I know when I look deep inside myself, I know I would feel that way with or without the matchmaking, lun.”

“Oyo…?” Dodo gasped softly. Her eyes shone with hope.

Lolo nodded his head, he placed his hand over his heart, “It's true, lun.”

“Then I… I believe you, Lolo, lun.” Dodo said.

Lolo extended his antennae and finally, Dodo did the same. Their matching, yellow orbs met and pressed against one another. They tickled with sweet and flirtatious, electric energy.

“I rescind my unkind words about your sister, lun.” Dodo quietly said. “Maybe… Maybe Dada and I can learn much from her extinct and unusual lifestyle, lun.”

“Me, too, lun.” Lolo said. “And I know what I want to start with, lun.”

“Oyo?” Dodo murmured. She met Lolo’s loving gaze.

“I want to try again, lun. I want us to have more children, from Dada to become a big sister, lun.” Lolo confessed to Dodo. “I want twins, two boys, lun.”

“But our previous bid, it was rejected, lun?” Dodo exclaimed in a small voice. “Well, um, we could petition Mother AI again, I suppose, lun…”

Lolo shook his head and he took Dodo’s hand in both of his. He raised her hand close and kissed her knuckles. He met Dodo’s eyes, insistently.

“No, lun.” Lolo said. “I want to try in our own way, lun. The old fashioned way, lun.”

“B-But what if… lun…?” Dodo tried to protest but she couldn’t.

Not when her own feelings of excitement welled up as they did. Her eyes watered. She hesitated, cast her gaze down. This was daring, this was not how it was done and yet. She surged forward. She wrapped her other arm around Lolo and caressed his shoulder. She bowed her head forward, her antennae twitched and generated beautiful sparks of magenta electricity.

“I-I’d really like that, lun.” Dodo murmured.

“Me, too.” Lolo affirmed her.

They pulled back from one another. Hikaru and Lala could hardly believe what they had eavesdropped upon but it seemed like only good things as finally, they both saw it. They both felt it. They were both electrified by it: the love that Lolo had for Dodo.

“We’ll keep trying, lun.” Lolo said. “Like Lala, let’s live on our own terms, lun.”

“It’ll be scary, and full of trial and error but… I suppose, if they can do it in the past, we can do it better in the future, lun.” Dodo murmured.

“Exactly, lun.” Lolo nodded decisively.

They pressed their antennae against one another: bulb to bulb. They shared electricity which was like nothing either had ever experienced before but they had seen it. Just earlier, between Hikaru and Lala. And now, it was theirs and their own to call love.

In all honesty, for Lala, as she stepped aside and decided she had seen enough, she felt relief for her brother. She smiled a self satisfied smile as she rested her back against the other side of the parlour’s wall. Hikaru crept up on her and got closer.

Hikaru draped her arm around Lala’s neck and shoulders to pull her in close with a hook. She hugged Lala and Lala reached up, she placed her hands over Hikaru’s forearm as Hikaru snuggled in, her chin nuzzled into the top of Lala’s head.

“Do you think you want to ever be like that?” Hikaru asked.

“No, I’m good, lun.” Lala replied.

“Ehh?” Hikaru whined. “You don’t want to be all shiny and sparkly and in love with that.”

“Oyo?!” Lala exclaimed, disgruntled. “I thought you were asking if I wanted children, lun.”

“No, I’m good on that as well.” Hikaru confessed. “It’s a whole wide world out there already full of people we haven’t met yet, people I know we’re gonna love in one way or another. So, I don’t think we need to worry about putting down roots when we’re going to be so busy trying to get out there, past the stars and the milky way.”

“Hikaru…” Lala breathed.

Hikaru turned her head. Lala tilted hers upwards, her antennae hopefully drifting upwards and Hikaru smiled. She put out her fingers and she pressed the pads against the surface of the orbs. They crackled with weak electricity which made the hair on the back of her neck stand up with static.

“Will you be there, every step of that journey, together?” Hikaru asked. “Whether it's on Saman or Earth, or any planet in between, we’ll do it together, right? Because you're mine and… I’m yours, as partners, no, more than partners as...”

“Are you… Are you asking me to marry you, lun?” Lala asked, her voice shaken.

“If you’ll have me.” Hikaru said.

“Yes, yes, of course, lun, a trillion times yes, lun.” Lala begged to be taken away. Far, far away from the monotony and sameness of Saman.

Hikaru grinned as she got swept up in the wave of emotion. She reached out, wrapped her arms around Lala and held her tight. Their hands intertwined, fingers interlocked and all that was needed was a ring but in a place like this, and a time like that, did they even need one? They could just do their own thing. They knew they had each other from here to the end of space and time and then some. So, they stayed like that for as long as they could, until their heartbeats melded into one.

With all the emotional highs and lows of the day coming to their end, it was time to say goodbye.

Dodo and Lolo came out of the living room and were genuinely surprised to find Hikaru and Lala. The latter of whom did their very best acting job – so, not a very good job at all – of pretending that they hadn’t been eavesdropping. It wasn’t entirely untrue given the revelations between them but still, it did little to quell the embarrassment that Dodo and Lolo felt but at the very least. All was calm and well.

Dodo and Lolo didn’t stay much longer but all four of them herded out to the front garden. They called back Dada, Kaka, and Toto and waited for them before big goodbyes were said in the last rays of daylight. It would be night soon. The streets were quiet, a breeze blew.

Dada went home with her parents. Hikaru and Lala returned inside with Lala’s parents. There was an earnest attempt to move on but there was an undeniable prickle of uncomfortable electricity in the air given the tension no matter how resolved. Dinner was fine.

Hikaru and Lala made it tonight. They wanted a proper, homemade meal. Kaka nor Toto understood the appeal, especially as all the cooking and cleaning took so much longer than just using the automated systems of the kitchen but Hikaru insisted. They made a mess. They laughed and had fun doing it. The resulting meal wasn’t quite perfect since the kitchen wasn’t meant to be used as a kitchen and the ingredients had to be reefed out of the locked larder but it was worth it.

It was the best thing either Kaka or Toto had ever tasted.

About par the course for Hikaru, she wasn’t a gourmand but this was what she knew, what she grew up with and appreciated the effort.

Lala knew she could have done better and she knew she would do better the next time she and Hikaru cooked together. After all, that would be soon.

In between the light and idle chatter of the dinner table, she and Hikaru stole knowing look after knowing look. The luggage was in Lala’s room. Hikaru could tell the command centre at any time, she would be home and on an Earthbound rocket at any minute.

All they had to do was tell the others but not yet. There had been enough shock and grumble today like thunder and lightning. They would wait just a little bit longer. They went to bed, hand in hand and chest to chest together, with a quiet knowledge that at breakfast, that would be it.

In the morning, Hikaru and Lala took over to make breakfast before either Kaka or Toto could press a button. They indulged the retro just a little longer but could feel something was off with both Hikaru and Lala’s regretful expressions. The overall mood of the household had improved which made the unusualness of Hikaru and Lala’s demeanour all the more bittersweet.

They said thanks over their bowls of breakfast. The gruel they all shared was sweet and syrupy, though. Kaka and Toto liked it well enough until Lala broke the news.

“Hikaru and I will be leaving for Earth today, we have decided, lun.”

Toto nodded, his hand at rest with a spoon. He and Kaka should have seen this coming. Their little Lala was quite the jetsetter as an inspector and now reunited with her human, yes, of course she would be leaving sooner rather than later but it still hurt to say goodbye especially as it was obvious but Lala said it anyways.

“I’m not sure when we will return to Saman, if at all, lun.”

“Mm, we wanna explore the galaxies together.”

Toto and Kaka glanced at one another, love and pride in their eyes. Even if a tear roll down the side of Kaka’s face, she exhaled calmly and smiled.

“We wish you both the very best, lun.” Kaka said.

“Indeed, and remember to keep in touch, lun.” Toto added.

“Yes, of course, lun.” Lala nodded her head.

They continued to eat breakfast but they shot Lolo and Dodo a message through the telecommunications: come home, now, it’s important. When breakfast finished, Kaka and Toto offered to do the dishes – and by hand.

This gave Lala and Hikaru ample time to raid the last of Lala’s bedroom. Just in case there was anything else she needed but no. She had managed to fit everything she needed into her suitcase: cream white, with turquoise accents.

“You sure?” Hikaru nagged.

“Certain, lun.” Lala replied.

She looked around her room. It had gone through many iterations in her lifetime. From a shared nursery to an empire of teenage angst and beyond. She had culled things over time, like babyish toys and old, worn linen and more. It had evolved with time but all she needed, really, was the clothes off her back and Hikaru by her side. She could experience everything and anything, joy and disappointment, like that. She was positive.

“Then this is it.” Hikaru shrugged.

Lala nodded her head, indeed it was.

She took her suitcase and it trundled on its little, shiny wheels. They were untouched by dirt and grit but for how long was unknown. The luggage had waited and waited just as much as Lala for this day when she would step out and ideally, never return.

Kaka and Toto greeted them. They let Lala and Hikaru know that Lolo, Dodo, and Dada had arrived. They waited for them in the front garden and so, they kept going. The wheels continued to spin as Lala dragged it all along and she saw the face of her twin brother in the garden outdoors.

The morning sunshine was cool and filtered through dew. The skies were pastel. The grass was mushy and wet underfoot. Lolo stood amid it all, arms folded and eyes unamused. Dodo was next to him, her hands in front, her eyes low in shame but Dada.

Dada was on her own. Not exactly confident but better than before. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she was the one who broke the silence between them, unable to read the air for the exact emotion imbued within it.

“Are you really going?” she asked.

No tic. A stab in Lala’s heart. For better or for worse, Dada wanted to choose how she spoke, how she portrayed herself, what she kept and what she rejected of the culture of Saman and how she felt as a Hagoromo. And she was.

Whether she called herself that or not, she was a Hagoromo through and through. Dada was as close to a direct descendant as there ever would be for the electrifying and anomalous Cure Milky. Lala was proud to call her family and love her dearly as a niece. Here was to hoping however, her service as a successor would never be necessary but Lala had faith in the potential of Cure Timepiece.

“Yes, lun.” Lala replied.

Dada cried as she flung herself at Lala. Both arms wrapped around Lala’s waist. She was barely taller than Lala’s naval. Hikaru crouched down and she patted the top of Dada’s head. Even in her hysterics, Dada’s antennae still reacted. A twitch. A crackle of electricity.

“There, there.” Hikaru soothed her. “We’ll be sure to tell you all kinds of stories when you see us next, promise.”

Hesitantly, Dada pulled herself off Lala’s front. Tear stains were left on Lala’s skirt. Dada squinted, disbelieving, at Hikaru and Hikaru merely smiled.

“I promise.” Hikaru insisted.

Hearing it again must have made it sink in for despite Dada’s sniffles, she pawed at her eyes and nodded. A brave face. Lala let go of a breath that she didn’t realise she was holding. Her right antenna rose and coiled around Dada’s in a soft and familial fashion.

In her heart of hearts, Lala knew the future of Saman was in good hands if there were children like Dada here. Children who were not afraid of rebuking the trend, of going against the numbers and the promises of Mother AI. It would be scary. It wouldn’t be for everyone but it meant a lot to Lala to know that her legacy would bring more good than bad.

Dada rejoined her mother’s side. Dodo moved her hand to place it on Dada’s shoulder.

Hikaru took Lala’s hand and Lala gave it a squeeze in return. Hikaru’s skin wasn’t quite as soft as it used to be, her grip had grown stronger and there was evidence of callusing on her palms. Lala liked it though. Especially as it was warm and strong.

“Ready to go?” Hikaru whispered.

“Lun.” Lala agreed.

Lala’s family watched as they left, together as a unit. Lala, Hikaru, and their luggage. The rest of the world awaited them just past the front gate and the hedging that rimmed the perimeter of Toto and Kaka’s house. But once they reached that edge, they paused.

Lala turned back, her hand still holding onto her suitcase’s extended handle, she waved goodbye to her loved ones. They waved goodbye back to her.

And then.

They were gone.

Just as Lala and Hikaru had met once more in the abyss of space, they could leave for it took in the blink of an eye and a cascade of stars. After that, in that glorious return of sparkling stardust, pink and greenish-blue, their past behind them and now, the first day of the rest of their lives could begin.