What´s Your Name?

The air was crisp, scented with damp earth and wood smoke, as Aria and Neon made their way away from the boundary. The twin suns hung low on the horizon, casting long shadows across the uneven dirt path. Trees arched over them, their leaves filtering the dim golden light, dappling the ground in shifting patterns. Every step took them farther from the unnatural glow of the boundary.

Deeper into Aria’s world. Neon had never seen anything like this before. 

It wasn’t just the warmth or the rough terrain underfoot- it was everything. The crooked wooden houses peeking through the trees, the clatter of distant animal-drawn carts, the flickering oil lamps that lined the village roads. It was like stepping into a virtual reality— a crude, primitive nightmare.

Plus, I have to wear this stupid Nyxian overcoat to hide my bodysuit, he groaned to himself, pulling her coat tighter to cover himself properly. 

His boots scuffed against a loose stone, and he caught himself before he could stumble. Aria glanced back but said nothing. She hadn’t said much at all since they started walking. A good thing, really. Silence meant less room for mistakes.

Every time one of them moved unpredictably, the other got yanked along with them. Neon stopped abruptly to examine something on the ground. Aria was mid-step and got jerked backward. She stumbled, catching herself on her feet just in time. “Oh my gods, just move,” she muttered.

They walked in uneasy silence, steps totally out of sync. Aria kept her eyes on the path ahead, while Neon glanced at her warily from the corner of his eye. If either of them strayed too close, they would instinctively shift away.

She seemed distant as if something gnawed at her mind. And the way she had healed him- it still didn’t make sense. The wound had been deep, and painful, something that should’ve taken him out for good.

Yet here he was, standing, walking, because she had helped him. No Nyxian technology came even close to such magic. And if this was the real power of Militian healers, then they were in big trouble...

Aria clenched her jaw. The warmth of her magic still lingered on her fingertips, but it wasn’t comforting anymore. What had she done? This boy was from Nyxia. He was one of them. Maybe he had even killed people she’d known. Good people. She should feel disgusted using her powers to benefit someone directly responsible for the pain her people had suffered, and part of her did. But another part of her felt a strange sympathy. The part of her that made everyone else view her as a "soft" person. 

He caught her staring.

“What?” he muttered.

She looked away at once, shaking her head. “Nothing.”

Neon wasn’t convinced. “You regret healing me.”

 Her fingers twitched. “Maybe.”

He huffed, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Well, too late for that.”

A pause stretched between them, filled only by the rustling of trees. Then she sighed, tilting her head.

“You sound different.”

He raised a brow. “Different?”

“Your accent. It’s weird.”

He scoffed. “I was about to say the same thing about yours.”

"I´m more surprised we speak the same language in the first place."

He snorted, noticing she wasn’t scared of him.

That was new. 

People usually kept their distance, either out of fear or something else. He was a Nyxian weapon, and everyone treated him as such. But the girl? She just looked at him like he was… annoying. And that was more unsettling than fear.

 “You’re not scared of me?” he asked, watching her carefully.

She arched a brow. “Should I be?”

“Most people are.”

“Well, maybe you’re just bad at being scary.”

His eyes narrowed. “Oh, really?”

“What are you gonna do about it?”

His usual confidence wavered for half a second, but then he smirked back. “Guess I’ll just have to prove you wrong.”

“Mhm. Good luck with that.” She was already looking away, unimpressed.

Walking in sync should have been easy, but the tether made it impossible to keep enough distance. Neon sped up, Aria slowed down. One of them dodged a boulder while the other didn’t, causing them both to stumble.

At one point, Aria tried to step over a fallen log, but Neon hadn’t noticed- he moved ahead, pulling her off balance mid-step. 

She barely managed to catch herself, just short of faceplanting. 

“I swear, you’re doing this on purpose,” she grumbled.

“Yeah, right,” Neon said. “Like I enjoy being slingshotted every time you decide to stop for no reason.”

The tension didn’t break. If anything, it deepened. They still didn’t trust each other and still walked a careful distance apart, but the distance was shrinking. Unintentionally. Annoyingly.

Neon stumbled again. His body was still weak, and he swore under his breath as he caught himself against the girl’s shoulder. They both froze, stiff as stone. They had only touched through the fabric of their clothes, but it was still too much. Too close. He pulled away immediately, his expression hardening.

She didn’t comment, but she didn’t step away either. She just shot him a glare.

“You’re planning to hand me over, aren’t you?” he muttered after a while.

She blinked. “What?”

“When we get to your camp.” He eyed her warily. “That’s your plan, isn’t it?”

She hesitated. “No.”

“...Liar.”

She huffed. “If I wanted to hand you over, I wouldn’t have patched you up. Besides, I doubt you’d let me."

"Also," she added, "we´re already handcuffed to each other, and the last thing I want is to share a jail cell."

He clenched his jaw. That was fair.

His mind flickered to an alternative. If he got into the enemy’s camp, it would be an advantage for Nyxia. He could dismantle them from the inside. But… why couldn’t they just walk away from each other now? This was irritating. Why was this happening?

“Tell me about your world,” Aria said, breaking the silence.

He glanced at her. “No.”

She rolled her eyes, changing the subject. “Fine then. What are you wearing?”

He frowned. “What?”

“Your clothes. They’re… strange.”

 He smirked. “Right back at you.”

She studied him, then exhaled. “What’s your name?”

He hesitated, then answered, “Neon.”

“…Neon.” She tested the name on her tongue. “That’s odd. Mine´s Aria.”

He smirked. “So is ‘Aria.’”

She huffed, shaking her head.

Then, more hesitantly, she said, “I’m hungry. You wanna get something to eat?”

Neon turned to her sharply, his gaze dark and sharpening. 

Aria stiffened, then quickly added, “I can’t go alone...”

He held his stare a second longer before the exhaustion gnawed at him and his expression shifted- less predatory, more tired. With a slow nod, he relented.

"And first, we need Nyxian clothing for you. The overcoat barely hides your strange attire."

They walked on, side by side. Neither comfortable nor entirely hostile. Just two shadows slipping deeper into the unknown.