She wore a full head of long black hair. It was an unnatural black, but what exactly defines "natural"?
No scars. He saw her body on full display, and the scars the white-haired Giulia carried around were now gone.
A kind smile. She smiled at 'him' as if that was the natural thing to do. Together with her smile, she put her hand on Randulfr's face and caressed it.
In response, the man placed his palm over her hand, keeping her warmth there. There was no doubt in his mind that she was in fact Giulia, yet how they had gotten there was a mystery to him. But it was a mystery that could wait. Whatever the reason was that he was being treated like this, Randulfr concluded that 'he' deserved it.
A couple more minutes wouldn't hurt.
As decided, it was exactly a couple of minutes of them staring into each other's eyes until the man's thoughts started an unstoppable race, for it is when you have nothing to think about that everything starts pouring in.
Where am I? No…
For all of 'his' years lived across multiple ages, 'he' had some knowledge to make use of. In 'his' desperation, the thought never crossed 'his' mind that a day when such knowledge becomes useful would ever come, yet it did, and in Randulfr's head, another question formed.
Why does this look like Mars?
There was one place nearby where the sands were red and the sunsets blue. A place of contradictions, just like using the term "nearby" when talking about other planets.
It made no sense. Why was he here? Why was Giulia here? Why were they in the same bed? Why was she sleeping on him, with her leg over his? Why was Giulia looking at him like this? What did they do? No way… was she in love with him? Was he in love with her? Were they a couple? Were they alone? Had 'he' died? But 'he' was still Randulfr. Was he worried? Should he be worried? Wouldn't it be better to be happy? Isn't this what you wanted? If it is, then why keep thinking about it? Why—
"Hya!"
With a cute fighting shout, Giulia grabbed the covers and threw them to the side, laying bare the scene of her body close to his, like two lovers waking up on a morning of their honey moon.
"Why are you staring like that? Are you still half asleep? Don't tell me… did an implant break down?"
Giulia grabbed Randulfr by the face and looked into his eyes.
"Hmm… I don't see any issues…"
"Scanning: All implants are functioning at maximum capacity. If anything, some of them seem overstimulated."
"AHH!"
With a shout, Randulfr jumped out of bed, landing on a cold heap of floating metal that wobbled intensely.
"Please do not interfere with daily assessments!"
A voice resounded from below the man. It couldn't have been anything but a voice, yet the way it spoke felt forced, biting hard into words instead of letting the sentence flow naturally. It was easy to understand, but somehow annoying.
Still, the source of the voice was unknown to the man. Or that was the case until he looked at what he had landed on.
With a "woah" and a *thump*, the man went from standing on the cold metal body to hitting the even colder ground, and what he saw above—probably looking at him, although it was hard to tell—was what 'he' had learned to call a robot. It was a heap of metal that could think for itself to a degree, like an incomplete human.
"Hihihi! I guess we don't have to worry. He seems plenty woken up now~" Giulia said in a teasing, amused voice. She then grabbed the covers and threw them at the robot, the robot in turn passing them to the man.
"Request: Cover yourself."
Now with red cheeks on top of his many questions, Randulfr got up and looked around the room. It looked like no room he had ever seen before. It certainly had personality.
It reminded him of what the people in his most technologically advanced lives would call "sci-fi," but for someone used to wooden houses and stone palaces, this was so much to take in that he didn't even know where to start. Hence, Randulfr simply accepted the house as it was.
Now, for the problem of being on another planet, that too had slipped his mind in all that hustling with that robot. Or it could be said that, for an issue even crazier than a "sci-fi" house, there was even less "computational power" the man could allocate.
Be it the right order of priorities or not, the man first had to address the two people next to him. Or could the robot really be called a person?
Before the Fjordheimer could come up with an answer, the machine was already out of the room, leaving after Giulia nodded at it with a "Thank you."
Now, the only person left was the woman he had woken up next to, and as much as he hated it, he had to ask the question.
"Giulia, wha—"
If only his lips wouldn't have been sealed by hers, maybe the question would have gotten out then, and the whole charade could have ended early. Alas, the lady took her sweet time kissing him, and by the time their lips parted, the man's "disk" had been wiped clean.
"Then… see you at breakfast!" she said with a wink and left the room.
The kiss lingered a little longer on the man's mouth, or at least that's what he felt. When it was over, his senses came back together with the worries. Only, the worries were much easier to manage now.
"Let's see where this takes me for now…"
He decided. Then he got dressed and headed out of the room.
*****
On a terrace, far away from everything that he knew, Randulfr was eating something he didn't recognize as food. It sure looked like something tasty, and it tasted better than everything he had ever eaten in his life, but it didn't feel like food. No matter how much he ate, he didn't feel like he was getting full, but nor did he feel hungry.
The bright blue sunset slowly turned into a pinkish-red. Up in the sky, there was the sun—much smaller than what he was used to, but it was the same sun nevertheless.
Even with the sun far away, he didn't feel cold, nor did he feel hot. Thinking about it, he hadn't felt any change in temperature at all since waking up.
He felt weird, like his senses were enhanced yet dulled at the same time. He felt like his soul was incomplete, and that fact kept distracting him whenever the man tried to figure out what was going on.
Besides the distractions inside his mind, there was one standing across a small table from him. Maybe that was actually the main distraction, since as he was looking around lost in thought, a hand grabbed Randulfr by the jaw and turned his face to look at that beautiful lady.
"If you keep looking anywhere but in my eyes, I'll get jealous…"
"Jealous? Jealous at who?"
Randulfr asked a competent question, but that question wouldn't get an answer, for Giulia stood up suddenly and playfully smacked the table with her palms.
"Anyway… What I'm saying is that you should look more at the woman you love! Or is there something wrong with my face? Did you get tired of it? Do you want me to change it? Because I can—"
"NO!" the man shouted, interrupting Giulia mid-sentence and leaving her with her eyes wide open.
"Sorry… I just don't want to imagine you ever changing for anyone… not even for me…"
Leaving aside how immensely painful changing a face seemed to the man, he spoke no lie when he said that he wanted Giulia to be just Giulia. Her face—her face alone was the last thing that Randulfr found familiar around him. Even her grown-up body was plenty different from both the young princess and the thrall woman.
Giulia's cheeks turned slightly pink the next moment, and while smiling uncontrolably, she bent over the table and grabbed Randulfr by the hand.
"Come on! Let's go for a walk!"
The man nodded and tried to free his hand so he could push into the table to get up, but the moment he let go of Giulia, she rushed to grab his hand once more.
"You know, even on the hottest days, the hand of a lady is still ice-cold. It is the duty of a man to warm her…"
It wasn't the first time 'he' had heard those words, and hearing them made his chest tighten up. Not paying attention, Randulfr squeezed Giulia's hand a bit too tight, and the lady let out a small whimper, yet she didn't let go.
Hearing those words spoken by her warm voice… It didn't feel bad at all. He might just be able to get used to it if things continued like that.
The two went on a walk holding their hands. They traveled over red boulders, and while there was nothing too out of the ordinary to see around except for a giant canyon, seeing those sights for the first time had Randulfr—in spite of Giulia's complaints—look around in wonder.
When they got back home, it was already getting dark. Because of Randulfr, they had spent the whole day walking around. He apologized to the pouting Giulia, but she answered with a wide smile.
"It's fine! As long as you had fun~"
For the evening, they spent their time together watching a movie and eating more of that delicious fake food. From time to time, they also teased the nearby floating robot.
At night, they jumped into bed together, told a couple of jokes, and pushed each other around. When the time to tuck in came, with heavy breaths, they cuddled under the same blanket in the position they had woken up in.
"Good night~" Giulia whispered, and before the man could answer, his lips were sealed once again.
Shortly after, Giulia fell asleep, leaving Randulfr to think about the day that had passed.
During the morning, he felt really anxious, yet that anxiety vanished sometime early in the day. He had no idea where he was, and he had no idea how he'd gotten there. Maybe he had truly died and awakened sometime far off into the future, but if so, why would Giulia be there? And why would he still be Randulfr?
Those thoughts plagued his mind for a while as he stared at the girl who was sleeping on his arm. The numbness tingles that were creeping up brought with them some intense love.
Maybe he was questioning it too much. He accepted waking up in unknown places so many times before. Why would he question a life that finally felt like the jackpot?
"Maybe I should just enjoy it…"
Whispering his conclusion, Randulfr closed his eyes with a smile on his face, ready to enjoy tomorrow just as much.
…
…
…
…
…
"Make it stop…"