[Mari]

Arle felt Rulue's grasp tighten around her and allowed herself to lazily lean into the other, turning her head and allowing herself to rest her head against Rulue's chest. She was the perfect height for literally listening to the other's heart. "...I'm sorry about all those fights, and I'm sorry I let Satan tear us apart. I never wanted to get in the way of your dreams." Arle replied. Was that a bit of guilt in her tone? Apparently, Arle felt as if she were somewhat responsible for Rulue's suffering. One had to assume it was easier to forgive when you were the one winning most of the fights. However, this did not last long. "Let's never let a boy come between us again~" the mage continued after a moment in a much more light-hearted tone. Whether she intended to attack Satan's manhood by referring to him as a boy or whether she was making some sort of throwback to their childhood friendship was up for debate, but Arle's mood appeared to have improved considerably since their arrival.

[TheSpatialWeeg]

"I should be the one to apologize. I was the one who left you for an impossible dream and caused most of those fights..."

While Arle apparently felt somewhat responsible about the whole thing, Rulue...didn't blame her in the slightest. If the Fighting Queen's opinion was concerned, Arle didn't do anything wrong. Allowing the sorceress to rest on her chest, she moved one of her arms and...affectionately ruffled Arle's auburn hair a bit. As Arle made that other comment, Rulue...laughed a bit. Not her usual noblewoman's laugh. an actual laugh. "Sure thing! It's a deal!" Rulue said before giggling a bit.

At that point, however, she remembered something.

"Oh, by the way, Arle..." Rulue began, retracting the arm she was using for the affectionate ruffling to grab something in her pockets. She soon brought the hand back, however, it was holding two necklaces that seemed to complete one another. She placed one of the necklaces in Arle's hands.

"Please...take this necklace as a gift from me, not only for listening to me, but for giving me another chance of being your friend. Thank you..."

[Rulue gave Arle one half of a Smash Amalgamation.]

[Mari]

Arle allowed herself to get lost in the intimacy of the moment ad she listened to Rulue speak. She was quietly listening to the other's heartbeat. Were both their hearts beating to the same melody..? Perhaps their mutual emotions had brought them together in sync..?

These very romantic thoughts, courtesy of Arle's subconscious, we're interrupted by sudden hair ruffles. "H-Hey~!" Arle protested, inadvertently burying her forehead against Rulue's bosom in an effort to hide from the playful affection. The look on her face was likely priceless, a bemused mix of shock and amusement. The moment her hair was freed from Rulue's grasp Arle pulled her head back and flashed Rulue a playfully competitive look. Her hair was hopelessly messed up underneath her tiara, leaving her looking as if she just got out of bed. She looked positively goofy. "No fair, I can't reach yours~!" Arle remarked light-heartedly. That probably wasn't true, but Rulue's hair was so beautiful. She kind of didn't want to mess it up..? Maybe some other time, when they were playing a bit more roughly.

Finally, Arle's attention was drawn to Rulue's gift. ...Jewelry wasn't her favorite thing, but... "Oh wow, this is really cute." Arle mused aloud in thought, declining to question who Rulue had been saving it for before her. "It feels like I've seen th--" Arle began, only to turn the necklace about and abruptly freeze up in shock as if she'd seen a ghost. She turned the necklace about and pointed to it's back. Amidst the runic inscriptions was a familiar name: Rulue. If Rulue checked hers, the necklace hard Arle's name engraved on it. "You kept these..? I thought we lost them a long time ago." Arle murmured in disbelief. As if on cue, the necklaces began emitting a very gentle yet noticeable light from their runic inscriptions. Arle and Rulue would feel themselves become slightly stronger in the presence of the runic magic.

(Arle and Rulue have succesfull bonded and activated with the smash amalgamations. They are now soul bound and grant their stat buff.)

[TheSpatialWeeg]

Surprisingly, Rulue didn't mind the sudden bosom invasion, only blurting out a singular "Whoa!" before laughing as Arle tried to escape the hair ruffling. At that moment, she was actually brimming with joy. It has been a long time she actually felt like this...She cuddled Arle. "Whoops! Better luck next time~!" She replied in response to Arle's remark.

As Arle was looking at the necklace, she noticed the shock override her face. Before Rulue could even ask, however, Arle showed it to her. One of the necklaces had her name on it already?! As if by instinct, she raised her necklace...and Arle's name was engraved on it. A fleeting memory hit her like a heavy brick now. They...they had this before, but they lost them...for some reason. Did the Mirage gave them replicas or...somehow, someway...brought the real deal back to them?

"...Arle...I got these from one of those 'Mirage Portals' you may have seen." Rulue confessed. "These do look like the real thing though..." She said before sliding the necklace into her neck when she notice the necklace glow. She felt...more powerful at that moment. What did that necklace do to her...? Was it something related to Arle? ...Hmm...

[Mari]

" . . . This world is strange and terrifying, and yet it brought us together and gave us something we both thought we'd never see again." Arle mused aloud after a moment of stunned silence. She inspected the neckless for a moment longer before slipping hers on. She wasn't huge on jewelry, but it wasn't difficult for her to make an exception for this particular necklace. Arle proceeded to adjust her hair, gently slipping the necklace underneath it before tucking the amulet on the end into her blouse. It would symbolically rest against her heart, where nobody could (hopefully) grab at it or break it. "...I don't know where you stand in this war, but I want to be by your side wherever it is--alright? Make sure to invite me to your missions sometime. I'll have to flip through my Heroes' Grimoire to look for any spells that are especially good for support." Arle would go on to state, beaming up at the taller girl eagerly.

"...Now. Want to help me try and cook something? Between both of our cooking skills I'm sure we can create something edible~"

[TheSpatialWeeg]

Rulue kept herself quiet as her friend talked to her. Honestly, this 'war' that was happening...she didn't want to bother with it. Why was there a war to begin with? It was pretty stupid. She'd pick a side if she needed to, but for now, she had no interest on participating. Thankfully, Arle's reassurance was something she'd remind herself. At least there would be no more needless friction...well, she hoped.

Inviting her to missions, however? That was something else.

"All right. I'll invite you whenever possible!"  Rulue ended up saying...at least in the matter of inviting Arle to a mission. Hm, that 'Heroes' Grimoire' sounded familiar...no time for that though, time to poke fun at the fact they are horrible at cooking except for a singular thing! Rulue wasn't going to deny that.

"I doubt we could do something together other than, say, a curry-flavored takoyaki, provided that was even possible." Rulue went on to say...in jest, of course. On a more realistic note, curry-flavored takoyaki probably wouldn't be a reality for a couple of reasons, mainly due to the fact that Arle had a case of 'misplaced spices' and Rulue doubted she had any around herself. "Though I suppose we can try to do something else~" the Fighting Queen continued before petting the sorceress in her now-messy hair.

[Mari]

"...That sounds wonderful, actually~" Arle would reply, slipping into a pleasant daydream for just a moment at the idea of curry flavored takoyaki. She began to remove her tiara to fix her hair, only to be taken off guard when Rulue went in for the double hair ruffle. Arle lowered her chin and giggled in response. "Rulue~! ...I don't have a brush wish me!" Arle would protest, half-heartedly resigning herself to messy hair and lowering the Tiara to her side. The mage awkwardly fussed with her now somewhat rebelliously big hair for a moment before giving up. She looked a little silly. "...Wanna just head out to the cafe? Their food isn't usually so fancy, but sometimes you get lucky and they make a nice stew or something~" Arle would offer. In truth, the 'cafe' she was referring to was more akin to a homeless shelter than a proper restaurant, but that was what happened when you went in search of reasonably priced food during a famine.

[TheSpatialWeeg]

Rulue tried to suppress a chuckle as she saw Arle fix her hair after stating she had no brush. "Here, let me fix it for you. Stay still." the Fighting Queen stated, pulling out a brush herself before working on Arle's hair. There was silence from her until she finished bringing Arle's hair back to normal...well, as best as she could, really. "Well, here you go." Rulue said soon after. "Can't go outside with a messy hair now, can we?"

Speaking of outside, Arle had just offered to go to a café instead of trying to cook for themselves. Rulue...pondered for a while before shrugging. "Well...if it's at least good, I'll take it...lead the way then, Arle." She replied, opening the door for them to go out and eat. Of course, she waited for Arle to go first, because...well, she knew where the café she talked about was, didn't she?

[Mari]

Arle was a little surprised when Rulue offered to help fix her hair. Normally she would object on the grounds that this was something that was deceptively intimate. There were simply too any things that could go wrong. There was painful hair pulling, the potential for lice--or the nightmare scenario: a vengeful and impromptu haircut. ...But she felt like she knew Rulue well enough to rule out anything filthy like lice, and she wanted to believe Rulue would be gentle with her. So she relaxed herself and allowed this moment of vulnerability to pass, quietly doing as she was instructed. It was kind of nice, really! It reminded her of when she was little and her mother was teaching her how to maintain her hair, a rather fond memory in hindsight if she did say so herself. Arle slipped her tiara back on and adjusted it so that it would be nice and snug.

"It feels great, so I bet it looks great~! I always wondered if you styled your own hair or if you let Minotauros do it. You always look really beautiful either way." Arle replied, casually heaping some praise onto Rulue. Being a girl, she had no trouble whatsoever imagining the difficulty in maintaining hair as long as Rulue's. One had to be able to reach behind their backs and work blind, unless they had some fancy mirror or something. Moving to take Rulue's hand in hers, the newly spirited Arle would begin guiding her out of the house. The mage seemed happier than she'd been since arriving on Li, filled with a newfound hope for the future.

[TheSpatialWeeg]

"...Of course I style my hair! Minotauros isn't...cut for the job." Rulue ended up admitting. Granted, it was a bit of a pain to style large hair by yourself, but it ended up being very well worth it in the end. There was not much time to think about that, however, as Arle grabbed her by the hand and started guiding her to the place they were going to eat. This little motion, however harmless it was, made Rulue a bit flustered. Sure, they mended their long gone friendship, but Arle was kinda quick to jump there...Ah, whatever, the sorceress seemed pretty happy with that for now, so she just let Arle guide her to the place without a comment.

[Mari]

Arle ... snickers at Rulue's choice of words. She saw what the other was doing there. "That's incredible!' the mage remarked light-heartedly before spiriting Rulue off in the name of friendship and food.

(End of Social. Probably.)

[TheSpatialWeeg]

And so, the two girls had spent a good time at the cafe. Whilst the Fighting Queen still had a few questions to answer for herself, her spirits were shot back up thanks to an old friend. ...Perhaps they could go shopping now, like she suggested to Arle once in her birthday party?

(End of Social)