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When Ariadne had suggested they go for a coffee, Lyse Hext couldn't say she'd quite expected this.
She gazed out into marvels from their perch. Island after island of rock suspended in the void, the relics of every manner of civilization clinging to each and every one. A star hollowed out, held together by strands of bright blue crystal. Another like an egg cracked open, its orange core shining where it hung just barely still attached to the shell. A bright white light in the distance that Ariadne looked at with a smile of achievement, like she'd contributed to what she called Elysion. Her gaze finally drifted to the shadow over them, a great black star, its husk cracked and constantly gushing out torrents of water around a shimmering globe that hung down toward a closer outcropping. An iridescent bridge stretched from their plateau up to that just as a path of crystal crept its way back down on the other side. Little miracles among all the awe-inspiring sights around them.
After a moment the xaela's gaze turned back to Lyse. “Beautiful, isn't it?”
“Very,” she nodded, feeling the smile tug the corners of her mouth. “When the others spoke about Ultima Thule, I never imagined it would be quite so pretty.”
Ariadne squeezed her hand with the familiar shadows of harrowing memories on the Warrior of Light's eyes. Lyse rubbed with her thumb soothingly. “It's changed quite a bit since we first came,” she mused with a glance across the islands. Base Omicron, the one where they'd arrived was called. One of the machines who manned it stood a little way away, regarding them in an oddly relaxed stance before turning its head toward the reason they'd come here.
Slowly Ariadne pulled her hand and Lyse followed, walking up a gentle slope toward alien trees and three towers. They should have seemed ominous, foreboding, but it was hard for them to be that when one was brightly lit up with signs showing what was clearly a steaming coffee cup.
She watched in some bemusement as a jellyfish-like creature ringed by a halo of light drifted past, followed by a chirping dragonet. “Wow...”
“Wow indeed,” Ariadne smiled, sweeping out her free arm. “Welcome to the Last Dregs, Lyse.”
Lyse took it in, more details standing out by the second. The patrons all looked back at her, an odd bunch indeed, a dragon rested by a table with a uniformed woman who reminded her of a Garlean, a fully robed and masked figure conversing with a bhoot-esque creature with the same halo the jellyfish had had, and finally a frankly adorable little seal-being in a diving suit that waddled right up to her.
“By Rhalgr,” she breathed, staring down at the last.
“Have you brought a friend, Ariadne?” the creature asked.
“Yes,” the Warrior of Light smiled. “This is Lyse, and Lyse-” she rattled off a list of introductions with gestures to each, the dragon, the Global Citizen, the Nibirun, the Ea, the Grebuloff, more, even. More and more figures walked, squeaked and drifted closer curiously, greeting Ariadne like an old friend come unexpectedly to dinner with the sort of adoration that the xaela seemed to inspire. She greeted them all in turn with a remark or a question for every single one of them, how she could remember it all Lyse didn't know but she did.
“Glad to meet you all!” she finally called when she was given a lull to speak.
They chorused their answers before parting to let them through at Ariadne's request, clearing the way to what was recognizably the bar. A trio of the Omicron machines manned it, one spinning a flask in its claw, another waiting with arms raised.
“Welcome to the Last Dregs, valued team member Ariadne,” that one droned in a voice like the hum of magitek. “How may this unit assist you?”
“Hello, M-104,” Ariadne grinned. “I was after a coffee for Lyse and I.”
The Omicron tilted its head to the side. “Do you have ingredients for the food processing unit?”
“I do,” the xaela chuckled, retrieving a pouch from one of her pockets and handing it over. Lyse watched, fascinated as the machine stared intently at the beans within. Soon it rattled off a list that all but made her head spin, even Ariadne nodding along to it. “Coffee beans, M, from Etheirys~”
The Omicron hummed a higher pitch. “Mixed with rock moss perhaps-”
Ariadne shook her head rapidly. “No, no, check the pouch again! And just add hot water!” She gave Lyse an apologetic smile as M-104 dug sugar from the pouch and scanned it.
“Soluble carbohydrate,” the Omicron recited. “Proposed addition will sweeten 'coffee'. Understood.” It moved down the counter and set about making the coffee, a little clumsily as Lyse watched.
“Don't worry,” Ariadne smiled. “M won't poison you.”
“That would quite ruin our day, so I hope not,” Lyse giggled, swinging their held hands a little and feeling Ariadne's tail coil gently around the back of her legs. She was a good bit taller than the xaela, enough that when they hugged stood up she could tuck the Warrior of Light right under her chin.
Gods, that was adorable.
The Omicron hovered back over with two mugs held delicately in its claws, the coffee hot and steaming. M-104 set a cup down before each of them, tilting its head again. “Payment, valued team member Ariadne? Or will this be your complimentary beverage for this working day?”
“No thank you,” the xaela smiled, taking some gil from her pocket and handing it over. The robotic barista inspected the coins for a short while then gave a satisfied nod and went to deposit them in a jar. Lyse didn't understand exactly why it was taking payment, unless it was simply because Ariadne had told them all that payment was taken in coffee bars on Etheirys.
That honestly wouldn't surprise her.
Ariadne took one mug and let Lyse pick up her own before leading her away through the crowds. They weaved around a trio of Nibirun conversing with a pair of Global Citizens, then past a dragon and three dragonets. Further away they went from the Last Dregs toward the bridge of light that reached upward.
“Where are we going?” Lyse asked.
“I wanted to show you something,” Ariadne smiled back at her, hand tight in hers, tail reaching back. Lyse let the latter touch her side and smiled in turn.
“Alright,” she grinned. “Though I don't know what more there can be to show me.”
“So much,” the xaela cooed as they stepped onto the bridge. Lyse marveled as she looked down at it, taking in the crystalline material and how it shimmered in the light of Elysion that skimmed past the dead star.
“What is it... made of?” she asked as they climbed.
Ariadne looked back with shadowed eyes. “A wish,” she murmured. “Hope.” Lyse didn't understand but didn't press her further, letting the woman she held so dear lead her up a bridge of hope toward the great globe above. They left the crystal behind and stepped onto rock, climbing higher and higher still. A glow came into view at the top while they made their way up the last steps, coffee in hand, eyes raised.
The xaela pulled Lyse up the last step and they stood in a field of flowers. Pure and radiant flowers, like none Lyse had ever seen. They shone so perfectly multicolored and beautiful, an impossible meadow to add to all the other impossible things here at the end of the universe.
Ariadne slowly turned to face Lyse and raised her cup. “Elpis blooms,” she said, not as though that explained everything.
“Elpis blooms,” Lyse murmured and smiled, lifting her own cup.
“I wanted you to see them,” the xaela continued. “To see all of this. To share it with you.”
“To have coffee with me at the end of the universe?” the monk beamed.
Ariadne's smile grew. Her eyes were as bright as the blooms now, not just because they caught the glow so well. “Exactly,” she breathed, letting her cup chink against Lyse's. “To us.”
“To us,” Lyse answered, and they drank together. It was a little bitter beneath the sugar, a little too strong mayhap, but Ariadne had her hand and they were a step closer and there was a tail against her legs and all those things made it taste so much better than by rights it should. Her eyes were closed as she savored the moment, let her hand creep slowly up Ariadne's arm to her shoulder, leaned in to let Ariadne do the same. She had to stop drinking before she burned her mouth, slowly swallowing and opening her eyes.
The flowers almost seemed to glow brighter.
Ariadne stared at her, into her. They let the cups slip aside carefully, not wanting to spill their coffee on the Elpis blooms even while their faces followed the course of their feet and hands. It was so gentle, so sweet that her heart swelled in her chest, she tasted bittersweet coffee and under that there was Ariadne, sweet Ariadne, her Ariadne, who'd no doubt talked the Forum into allowing this, who'd helped fill a new star with hope, who'd suffered so much yet would bring her girlfriend here just to show her that there could be coffee at the end of the universe.
Oh gods, she loved her for it.
It lasted so long yet just long enough, enough that lungs started to burn even a little. Lyse almost would have kept going and Ariadne knew because she was the one who gently pulled back, a apologetic smile on her lips while her tail rubbed soothingly against Lyse's hip. Raw adoration kept the highlander staring into those lovely eyes, the scaled face, the lips she could kiss for bells if given the chance. She was so fixated it took embarrassingly long for her to realize that something had quite substantially changed around them.
The Elpis blooms were bright pink.
“How...?” she began. “Is this you...?”
Ariadne shook her head and smiled wider again as she sipped her coffee. “No, Lyse,” she murmured. “It's us.”
Lyse grinned and laughed with joy and sipped her coffee, there at the very end of the universe.