Stelle has been in her bed for hours, she is looking at her phone out of battery but suddenly, she wake up and go to get the charger and continue the game on her computer
A pink-haired girl is on the other side of the door, when she heard the steps, she said: “Hey, can we talk?, I have some of the garbage cookies that you love!”
“Stelle, please, we are your family, trust in us, we can help you “ she thought.
When Stelle hear about the cookies, she puts a sad smile on her face and took her headphones with the volume at maximum, praying for the game to start as fast as possible, but a small tear drop from her eye
March sight in the verge of crying, she let the door and started a slow walk till her room, when she is in the panoramic panoramic carriage, someone said her name, she turn around and see Himeko
“March, it is not your fault, we-” March feels the tears starting and said with a really sad voice
“I don't know what else I can do, she was inside that room for days, I've never seen her like this and It's really scaring me, sh-she- “Then she started crying, Himeko just opened her arms and hugged her, caressing her hair, she didn't know what to said, March keep murmuring that it was her fault, she shouldn't said that joke to Stelle, then Himeko just hugged her tighter.
Stelle’s stellaron started to talk to her a few weeks ago, she had been acting strange and she was really refusing to tell anything about, so everyone tried to cheer her up while trying to respect her privacy and waiting to her to trust in them about what happened, but a few days later, March was thinking on taking pictures to everyone in the train, she know that Stelle loved to make silly poses with her bat. When she proposed it to her,
Stelle just keep looking at her phone while saying “Nah, I'll pass”.
March felt hurt and she said on a joke ”who are you and what did you do with Stelle?”
Stelle was paralyze, she felt the stellaron in her chest, starting to taking all of her heat and something just broke inside her, she push March out of her way while shouting:
“Leave me alone March!”, said and she just collapsed, ran across the train, even crashing with Himeko, who tried to grab her hand and talk with the girl. She broke free from her grip and jumped across the stairs to her room, to finally lock herself in the room.
They thought that she just need space, but at the second day she didn't go out and they started to be really scared about her
Four days have passed and nothing looks to change. They tried to talk with her, all the nameless had been on that door, even they send a message her but she refused to open the chat and the things wasn't look good
Stelle wakes up sweating in her bed thanks to another nightmare, she hadn't slept well those days, she just played with her phone, when it was out of battery she just put it in charge and started playing with the computer or the arcade machine until the phone is fully charged to start again.She just stop this cycle when she accidentally fell asleep. She didn't want to think, she just wanted to disappear. She knows that everyone in the astral express is worried about her and she feels guilty. Sometimes, when she wakes up or looks at her back after a long time on the computer, she finds a big glass of water and diferentes meals. She knows that it is thanks to Pom-Pom, she feels more guilty for that but she tries to eat enough to not pass out. The stellaron scream in her head
“That's not true, they hate you, you are only living here for me, I am the thing that makes you special,they are interested in you because of my power, nobody really loves you!, they are gonna leave you!.
In fact, someday, I'm going to gain completely power over your body”
In that moment she remembers Himeko’s expression when she ran away from her, she remembers the voice of the nameless too, but the thing she most remembers is March’s face, when she pushed her, how hurt she looked.
When she starts thinking at that moment, the thing inside her body doesn't just make her chest hot and screaming inside her head, it starts to suck all of the heat too.
Is in that moment when she takes a decision
Then she hear a voice
“Are you really sure that this it's what you really want?”Pom-Pom it's beside the bed and is looking at her with a distant look
“I'll will be the best for all of us” She talk for the first time in days “don't tell anyone, please”
Nothing in Pom-Pom changes, but Stelle feels that they hate her too.
“Stelle, if you need something, you can always return here, this is your house too, you know, right?”
Stelle knows she won't come back here, at least voluntarily, she just nods with her head and Pom-Pom does the same with a little smile.
It's late in the astral express, everyone in there is, in theory, sleeping. Stelleis in front of her door and is unable to open it, she knows it is not turning back from this decision. She wants to laugh, “when you have to make a choice, make one you know you won't regret” she whispers in the air and she opens the door
She takes a big breath and starts going down the stairs, she is as silent as she can be. She keeps like that till she saw March sleeping in one of the sofas in the dining car, she feels her heart shatter in a million pieces. She seats on the floor and realizes that she can't let March on the sofa. She gets up, takes March in her arms and takes her to the other girl’s room.
“Let her fall, she hates you” Stelle shake her head to keep these thoughts out of her head
March unconscious grap her arms around Stelle’s neck and put her head as close as she can to Stelle
She passed the first car without problems, but when she opened the door of the passenger’s car she saw Dan Heng. He doesn't say anything, he just looks at them and then he goes to open March’s door. Stelle enters the room and leaves March in her bed and then she looks at her, feeling guilty for make her suffer till she felt asleep in a sofa just waiting for her to leave her room. When she leaves the room, she sees Dan Hang beside March’s door and she immediately starts to panic. He realised that and goes a few steps away from her to give her more space. Stelle realise that and the stellaron inside her start to laugh and shout “he is moving away from you, no one wants to stay close to you”
She puts her hands on her head at the same time she starts to hyperventilate and the last thing she saw was Dan Heng moving as fast as he could toward her and the need to scream
Stelle screamed as she felt. Dan Heng was able to catch her, but she wasn't calm, she was stirring gently, he left her on the floor without having an idea of what to do. The crew were attracted by the scream, the first one was March 7th, she went directly to hug Stelle, while asking Dan Heng “She was the one who carried me to my room, wasn't she?”
He nodded with her head while watching Himeko and Welt coming quickly
“What happened “ Welt ask
“She went out of her room, I suppose she saw March sleeping on the couch and she wanted to take to her room. She left her in the bed,she went out of the room and she saw me, I don't know why but she looks… scared of me. She start to breathe too fast, put her hangs on her head and then, she… she just felt” Welt put a hand on Dan Heng’ shoulder and Himeko said calmly
“She has many dark circles under her eyes, and probably haven't eating enough, let's gonna take her to a place more comfortable”
March, who keeps hugging Stelle said “we can put her in my room, is closer and we can keep an eye on her”
“That's not a bad idea” said Welt “but I have to check her stellaron, it looks like it's so destabilise “
“Please, let me stay with her” March almost beg
“Of course”
They took Stelle and put her delicate in March’s bed. While Welt stabilised the stellaron, Dan Heng and Himeko talked to Pom-Pom and discovered that Stelle was planning to leave the express.In Himeko's hands a little flame started to burn while Dan Hang clenched his teeth, both furious on themselves from not being able to help their companion. Then they look at eachother and the navigator said ”Pom-Pom, please don't let her go out the train until we already have talked with here, if after that, she still wanna leave the express,we can't stop her”
When Welt finished to stabilize the stellaron, Dan Heng entered the room with his sleeping bag and put it beside March's bed. March was on the bed and she asked him if he wanted to sleep in the bed with them. He refuse with a little head move and he entered to his bag
while March looked at the girl
When she opens her eyes, she see the ceiling of March’s room,this is so strange because she doesn't remember why she is there, in that moment Stelle remembers how she was going to leave the express.Then she realises that she is hugging something warm and heavy over her, she looks there and sees a girl with pink hair who is hugging her too. Stelle feels warm, the cold that the stellaron trigger in her it just vanished. Even if she still feels really bad, she hugs the sleep girl tighter, dawns her head in the pink hair and falls asleep again.
When she wakes up again, they are in the same position, but this time March is already wake up and is caress her face and hair
Stelle closes her eyes, just enjoying the touch and trying to pretend she is still sleeping.
March smile a bit, she knows Stelle is pretending and she is happy that she didn't tries to escape
She looks at the sleeping bag in the floor, when Dan Hang is and he just nod his head, then he gets up and go to tell Himeko
Welt and Himeko are in the panoramic car,she is drinking her coffee when she sees Dan Heng entering the car , he said that Stelle is already awake and is with March. The adults look at each other and smile softly.
March keeps caress Stelle for several minutes, till she hug her and whisper in her ear
“Ey, galactic baseballer, I know you're awake”
Stelle tenses and refuse to open her eyes
March hug her tighter and said “Stelle, we are not mad at you, we lov-”
“Stop!” Stelle yells while she starts to squirm out of March's hug “you don't love me, you just want me because the stellaron!”
March was shocked, she grips Stelle harder while her heart broke
“March, let go of me now” Stelle starts crying and feel that she is about to lose the control of her body
“No,I never let you go” March yells to while she wraps her with her legs too
“Why?!, I don't know who I am, the only thing that I'm good at is to hurt people, look what I did to all of you!” she can't take this anymore,
She completely loses control of her body and the flaming lance appear in her hand at the same time the world becomes black again
When the world lights up again, March has little part of the clothes burned and is separate from Stelle, the lance between them
“Stelle, listen to me” Stelle fall to the ground, completely defeated and started laughing
”Tell me March, tell me why you would want me near around you”
Stelle gets up and turns around ready to go when she fell March hugging her from behind and putting her on the floor again. The silver hair girl tries to break free till she hears March voice sobbing
“Because I know you're scared, because I know the good person you are, because I love your chaos, I love to take pictures with you, I love when you do your silly faces, I love how you say my name, I love how passionate you are, I love to see you every morning, I love you, idiot”
She was raising her voice until the last sentence, which she said murmuring
“Please, don't go out of our lives, we all love you with all of our heart, you are really special,please stay with me, don't leave, please…”
March sank her face in Stelle's back and started crying. Stelle was so confused, her mind was at maximum speed. Finally, she separated herself from March, turned around and gave her a desperate hug.
March held her head with one hand and her shoulders with the other, then she held her tightly
Stelle couldn't stop crying, she felt save for the first time since she woke up in Herta's space station, in that moment her world became in the person how was holding her
They were in the floor for a long time, and when they separate March said “hey, can we go to bed?, I really love hugging you, but pretty girls aren't made to be on the floor” Stelle smile a bit with the joke and get up behind March
March is lying down in the bed when Stelle lied down over her and said with a really low voice
“Can you…caress my hair” Stelle said timidly
“Of course” March had a little smile while Stelle is putting her head in March’s neck hollow
March start caress her hair while Stelle start talking
‘This… thing inside me, takes my heat, I don't know how to explain it, but is like every part of my body except my heart, is inside cold water”
March didn't interrupt her, she just let Stelle talk
“Sometimes it talk to me, you know?, at first it was a chorus of voices inside my head, laughing, then they started to say words and a few weeks ago they made sentences and talked to me, they said that I was nothing, that Stelle …“ she swallowed ” that Stelle was going to disappear but, since I wake up, that voices disappeared“ Stelle sigh “Don't get me wrong, they were terrifying and I'm happy with not having inside my head but I feel like they are going to come back again, stronger”
The girl with silver said that with a voice thread
March hug her with her free hand and Stelle ask while saying “Mr Welt established the stellaron, it wouldn't affect you again”
Stelle smiled in March neck
”You- you won't leave me, right?“ Stelle raised head to look and March eyes
”I won't, I promise” The bicolor eyes shine with determination
Stelle believed her
“March”
She move herself until their mouths where in front of another
March closed her eyes
Stelle is looking at her while holding her breath
Then she kissed her
She felt how March smile and how she is grabbing her head closer
Stelle broke the kiss with tears falling from her eyes
Then March opened her eyes
“Ey, did I do something wrong, are you okay,why are you crying!?
Stelle started to laugh out loud while keep kissing March's face
“I'm crying because I'm so happy”
March started laughing too
In the next room, the nameless smiled, happy to hear their companion’s laughs, he went to see the others passengers.
When they saw his face, both smile