Alex could not help but burst out laughing as she saw the soot-covered face of her husband on the other side of the call.
"Don't laugh, please."
"HAHAHA! HOW CAN I NOT LAUGH! HAHAHA! OH MY GOD! YOU LOOK REDICULOUS!"
Her uproarious laugh rang out in their home as Steve gave his wife an annoyed stare.
Finally, after laughing for several minutes, Alex calmed down a bit and smiled mischievously at her husband.
"I guess, for once, all of your planning was for naught, eh?"
"It is no laughing matter, Alex. If it were not for Malachite's swift actions that covered up the explosion and the damage, our identities would have been exposed straight away."
Alex just smiled amusedly at her husband as she continued relaxing on the bed.
"And would that be such a bad thing? To be exposed as potentially powerful Huntsmen? From what I can tell, Huntsmen are afforded a lot of leeway and benefits that regular civilians cannot hope to get from what I read about them."
"True. But didn't you want to lead a peaceful life? Away from all the conflict so that we can spend our days in peace?"
Alex felt her heart flutter at those words as her eyes softened.
While she might appear to be some kind of airhead with her head in the clouds, she was in truth, very perceptive of the emotions of those around her, especially her loved ones.
That is why she knew Steve's nature better than anyone, even Steve himself.
While he would have fallen to despair if he were left alone, and in that regard she was thankful for having run into him all those centuries ago in that village where he arrived accidentally after veering off his regular path, she also knew that deep down Steve would love nothing more than to explore this world with her. Trying to see what this world had to offer for his experiments and to sate his curiosity.
However, he chose to refrain from indulging in any of that, simply because she had once mentioned in the past that she would love for the two of them to settle down somewhere quiet. A place where they could spend their days without any care in the world.
"Steve. You don't need to suppress your desires for my sake. If you choose to be a Huntsman or anything else out there, you know that I would follow you without any question."
Steve simply smiled at her words, knowing exactly what she was thinking about.
"I never said that I was making any kind of sacrifice for you, Alex. Everything I do, I do from the bottom of my heart. So don't think too much about such things. Now, what have you been up to while I was dealing with accidentally levelling a district with the sheer kinetic force of my Aura awakening?"
Alex once again laughed at that mental image, imagining Steve standing with a dumbfounded expression at the center of a crater.
If people had been hurt in this incident, Alex would never have laughed as she was doing, but thankfully, nobody died, and only a few people were injured since the Spiders had their base in a remote part of Mistral's slums, where very few people dared go.
"Oi!"
"Hahah! Ok, I'll stop. Anyways, while you were gone, i met a woman called An Ren and spent the day talking about a few things."
"Oh! What things?"
"Girl talk, no boys allowed!"
Steve raised his eyebrow at those words before a mischievous grin made its way onto his face.
"Is that so? Too bad, I just heard about the perfect place for a date. But since you are so busy with your 'girl talk'-"
"Don't you dare!"
Steve just laughed at her panicked expression, knowing that she had been looking forward to the date night that they had always wanted but could never have since the nights were extremely dangerous in the Overworld.
He smiled softly at his wife, making her pout and look away from him.
"Sorry. I couldn't help it."
"Hmph! See if I care about you anymore!"
"Don't be like that. I heard that there is going to be some kind of festival in the coming days in Mistral and all of its colonies, which also includes Kuroyuri."
Alex frowned as she tried to remember where she had heard about that before remembering it.
"Ah! Right. An said something about that. She said that the entire town would gather for some kind of lantern festival that is a tradition in these lands."
"Right. So, I was thinking we could make that a date-"
"Done! Oh! This is going to be great! I need to get to Kuroyuri and get some materials for clothing-"
"Alex."
"What style should I make? A Kimono? No. From what I can see, the culture here is a mix of Chinese, Japanese, and a few other Eastern countries from Earth-"
"Alex!"
"What about the colors? Should we go with our regular colors? cyan and blue for you and green and brown for me?"
"ALEX!"
The shout finally snapped the woman out of her rant, making her look at her husband, who was giving her an exasperated look.
"I know that you are excited, but refrain from getting any materials for now. I have already bought some good clothes for both of us."
Alex raised her eyebrow in doubt before she gave her husband a teasing grin.
"Is that so? Then, did you pick up some undergarments for me as well? My~ to think that you would actually pay so much attention to me that you would even know my sizes! How embarrassing ~"
To her teasing words, Steve could only give her a flat look from the other side.
"Really? That's your attempt at teasing? Remind me how many centuries it has been since we've been married? And how many decades did we spend time as lovers before we made it official?"
Suddenly, he grinned as she started to blush in real embarrassment as she remembered all those private moments between them over the many, many centuries they had been together.
"I wonder who is the pervert who got drunk on honey mead and could not stop speaking about the embarrassing details of our love life in front of those villagers?"
"Ok! stop! You've made your point! Ugh!"
Steve's grin turned warm as he spoke softly to his wife, who had a pillow to her face in embarrassment.
"Seriously, though. Don't do any work while I am away. The date and our lives after that are meant to be relaxing, not the time to make our own things from scratch. From what I gathered, I have enough gold with me to buy out an entire Kingdom if we so wish, and that is before adding all the gemstones and other precious materials that we have with us. For once, let our wealth buy us the things that we need instead of making them ourselves, and just relax."
Alex could not help but smile happily at those words.
"Fine! But since we are so rich, don't you dare stop me from buying whatever I want at the festival! Also, I want to give An and her family a gift since she was good company while you were gone."
"Haha! Fine. It's not like I ever forbade you from buying anything from the occasional traders in those villages, not to mention that you are just as wealthy as I am."
"Don't care! I want your gold and money! Not what I have in my storage."
"Alright, my lovely wife. Your wish is my command. Speaking of, how many people are there in Ms. An's family? Might as well pick up those gifts from Mistral proper."
"There is An. Her husband. And her infant son."
Steve simply nodded at those words.
"Alright. Anything else?"
"Get me some local specialities while you are at it! Some ice cream would not hurt, some chocolates, not the atrocity against nature that you call Dark chocolate, but the regular stuff. And some candies as well!"
Steve laughed a little at her childish words, but still dutifully noted them down on his list.
"As you command, my sweet-toothed queen."
Alex smiled smugly at those words.
"Good! Now get back here quickly so I can have my body pillow back!"
Steve gave a dramatic, pained look at those words.
"Is that all I am to you? A tool for your pleasure and your body pillow?"
"You know it! Now hurry. Oh! While you are at it, get me one of those Bullheads that I read about. I want to see how different they are compared to the airplanes from Earth!"
Steve nearly stumbled when he heard those words, making him look at Alex dubiously.
"Are you asking me to buy an entire Bullhead so you can experiment with it?"
She simply raised an eyebrow at those words.
"Did I stutter?"
Silently, Steve put that down on his list as well, which would have been a ridiculous thing for anyone else in this world to do, but nobody said anything about this duo of Builders being sane in the first place.
Soon, the two devolved into a simple chat as Steve headed towards the secondary base of the Spiders, intending on fulfilling his wife's insane request.
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Author notes: Read 10 chapters ahead on Patreon: patreon.com/Tiranus2