——"But." The elf tried hard to steady his trembling voice: "I don't want to do this to you... Ugh"
I don't want to blame you.
That's what was revealed in those eyes.
"But, I treated you like this," Alger asked. "Even so, are you willing to like someone like me?"
——"I, I don't know." The elf looked at him with tears in her eyes, a little confused: "But I, should be, like...! I like your..."
"You said it," Alger whispered, "Penny, don't regret it."
Like me, and only like me.
Otherwise I'll go crazy.
…
Three months later, Alger returned to the Imperial Capital. Aside from the few people who watched the show, he had finally completed all the work of this war and put an end to it.
"Have you finished your business?" Xu Shiqing held the terminal, which displayed the latest TV series. "Then I'll arrange a route back to Nachu."
"Don't worry, the gift I bought hasn't arrived yet." Alger felt a little toothache when he thought of the troublesome Ronnie Niedan and Sister Teresa.
Neither of these two is easy to deal with.
"...If it really doesn't work, then when you see the right opportunity, I'll take you away." Xu Shiqing suggested sincerely: "Let's go back after Ronnie and Theresa have calmed down."
"Okay." Alger smiled. "Where are we going to elope to then?"
"Hasn't you seen that little planet you bought before?" Xu Shiqing reminded him, "It's just a good time to go to the next galaxy and take a look."
"Then you have to disguise yourself well." Alger said seriously, but his glance was completely different.
Xu Shiqing's ears turned red. He pointed at the bite mark on his collarbone angrily and said, "Don't go too far! You promised me last night that you wouldn't leave any marks!"
Then what?!
His eyes were full of accusation.
Alger coughed lightly a few times. There was nothing he could do. The elf looked so beautiful, as if she was about to cry, that he couldn't help himself.
"I don't want to know where you learned these new tricks anymore." Xu Shiqing said. He still remembered the last time Alger mysteriously brought out a two-player holographic game and said he wanted to play it with him. After playing it, he finally understood where this guy got the inspiration for those shameless tricks.
"But didn't you have fun in the end?" Alger retorted in a low voice.
Xu Shiqing clenched his fists expressionlessly: "Alger."
Alger: "I was wrong."
The elf was thin-skinned, and he shouldn't have argued back.
"Why are you still so shy?" Alger pinched his earlobe and straightened his messy clothes. "Like an ancient Earthling."
The elves being mentioned were actually real ancient Earthlings glaring at him. He had already experienced firsthand how open the interstellar world was to this kind of thing!
"I feel like I'm dreaming." Alger hugged him, as if it were his natural ribs. "You really like me."
"...Why don't I like you?" Xu Shiqing had been puzzled for a long time. His way of thinking was always simple and direct. "Among the people I know, besides Ronnie and Theresa, aren't you the one I have the best relationship with?"
Why is Alger so unsure of himself?
"It's impossible for me to like both of them. Ronnie is a teacher and Theresa is my sister." Xu Shiqing said, "Although I am surprised that you want to develop this kind of relationship with me, I should have no reason to refuse, right?"
"...No, friends and lovers are different." Alger frowned, "You don't do this because you don't want to lose me as a friend...!"
"Of course it's because you're Alger." The elf interrupted him.
Xu Shiqing frowned, thinking back to his thoughts at the time: "Even if I have friends with better relationships in the future, they are just friends, and they won't be you."
Alger's existence has always been unique, just like his passionate feelings for Xu Shiqing.
"I wouldn't want to share the eight-hour sunset of Nachu with them, and they wouldn't want to share the dazzling aurora at a corner of the starry sea with me at a certain moment."
Xu Shiqing's life was lonely and isolated. He spent twenty autumns and winters in the ward. His life only stayed in the pale room and the green of a small flower garden in front of the window. Apart from that, there were only the boring news on TV and the books delivered every week.
That's all.
So he longed for a healthy body more than anyone else, and he also hoped to have a family and a place to call home more than anyone else. He had had enough of the loneliness of life, and he no longer had any hope for the relatives he had never met.
The system was his first friend. Although 021 was unusual, Xu Shiqing accepted him. Later, in the apocalypse, Gu Yi and his companions gave Xu Shiqing his first home. He accepted all their teachings, but neither Xu Shiqing nor the experimental subject, "Xu Shiqing," could give back due to their own poverty. Their lives were both incredibly wonderful, and even though they may have faded after the apocalypse, they had once been brilliant.
Xu Shiqing, however, had never even blossomed. How could a seed buried in the ground share the sunshine with the blossoming flowers? They had never been side by side, like a kite that had already flown far away, pulling at Xu Shiqing, but it was already impossible to catch up.
Kites fly with the wind, but they don't need anyone to chase them.
Alger and Xu Shiqing were real, true friends, walking side by side. They were the first people he'd truly opened up to in this strange world. Now Alger was telling him he couldn't live without him, that he needed him. So why would Xu Shiqing refuse Alger's open arms? Why wouldn't he be moved?
"At that time, I thought about whether I should stay away from you." Xu Shiqing seemed not to feel the merman's arms tightening for a moment: "But the conclusion is that I don't want to do that."
"Because I realize that even if you go a little further, I'm still willing to tell you that the wind on Cosette Prairie is very brisk today, the sun is very warm, and there's a cloud that looks like a little lamb."
"So why don't I accept you?" Xu Shiqing asked back, "Why do you think it's so forced for me to like you?"
He accepted Alger's feelings for him calmly, because he could definitely return the same love. So why not accept it?
"You can completely believe in your place in my heart. We can be best friends, but we can also be lovers."
Alger fell in love with the elf at first sight and took his love too lightly. But to the elf, he was also another unique person.
“…”
"Alger?" Xu Shiqing asked.
"...Who taught you that?" Alger's mind went blank. He knew without a doubt that his face must be red. "Penny, you're really breaking the rules, aren't you?"
"...Are you shy?" Xu Shiqing hesitated.
Alger buried his head in the side of his neck, and they were almost like meshing gears. It was a very strong and emotional hug.
At this moment, they are no longer alone.
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