The salty ocean breeze swayed gently alongside the rhythmic sound of the tide crashing against the beach, under the comforting spring sun.
Nora slowly looked away from the fantasy gothic style book, which featured the illustrious image of two lovers kissing under the shadow of a moon split in two. She now focused on Connie despite her own exhaustion over these past few days; however, her friend was not to blame for any of her current problems, nor for the fact that she was working herself to death because more and more, and once again, of those robonoids or whatever those things were kept appearing after a relatively short week of peace.
For the love of the stars, yesterday she alone had to destroy more than thirty of these damn things; just yesterday. And that was without counting the ones the other gems and her boyfriend knocked down in other parts of the world. Those things were relatively easy to defeat; the problem was that they appeared in random parts of the planet and, very easily, several at once, which was annoying even when having something as convenient as the warp pads. She kept getting tired of going back and forth.
Sure, the first few times it was fun to go out with her lover, smash a couple of alien robots as if it were a date, and tease each other like a not-so-innocent game; but later, more and more clearly kept coming, and once again, which was already making her sick of it because she could not enjoy her outings or her sleep. These damn things arrived at any time of the night just as much as during the day. Yes, she was fed up at this point, and less than a week had passed since all of this started.
Nora could see how Connie looked at her with a rather obvious question accompanied by genuine concern for her.
"Are you okay?"
She sighed as she lowered the book; her eyelids also dropped for a good few seconds before she answered. She was not so clueless as one might think from her positive attitude not to notice that this was basically the only moment she had truly rested, because now it was Adrián who took care of her share of green alien robots from outer space from the homeworld, only for her to be called later by Connie for a girls' night out.
Yes, a classic manipulation on Adrián's part; but, in this case, she really liked that he did that. Was it strange that she liked someone dictating her life? She left that train of thought deep in her mind before returning to reality.
"I'm just pretty tired of having to deal with so many damn robots at every moment of the day," she said while Connie remained by her side listening intently, something understandable given her attitude of an idiot resentful of exhaustion. "It's exhausting."
With that she finished, and everything seemed to stall in a soft silence between them while Connie only offered a few words of encouragement.
"You know, I understand it a little bit."
Connie spoke while Nora looked at her more closely, causing her to shift a bit from where she was sitting on the sand.
"I mean, not on that level or in the same wild circumstances."
She laughed a little before continuing.
"But I do know what it's like to repeat the same routine with exasperation, without seeing any changes, to the point that you end up tired of everything."
Nora remained silent as she watched her continue, before Connie put on a quite sincere smile.
"Even though since I've known you and Adrián, things have become more bearable, because now I don't know what I can expect."
Connie looked into her eyes before her smile changed to something closer; a camaraderie she did not know they had between the two of them, at least not on this level.
"And I know I can't be the same as what you guys are to me; but at least I want you to know that I'll be there for you when you need someone to complain to about the things that happen while we read a bad teenage romance novel."
"Conni..."
Nora was about to speak, deeply moved by what her friend said and by the sincerity with which she did it, but she could not even finish her name when a thunderous crashing sound occurred quite close by, accompanied by a momentary rain as the seawater was blasted upward.
Nora put a hand to her face as if trying to remove the frustration of what had just happened, while Connie was frankly marveled by, well, the proverbial show.
This energized Nora, who sighed, returning to her energetic self. Her vision focused, as did her senses, leaving aside the words coming out of Connie's mouth or her gestures of astonishment. It might have been due to exhaustion, it might have been due to her continuous training over the years alongside the gems, or it might have been both things; but she had a smile on her face despite the visible signs of exhaustion, with her gaze reflecting a deeper and more luminous shade of pink than her usual neon pastel pink.
With a movement more than rehearsed during these last few days, she summoned a relatively normal shield while waiting patiently for the fluctuation of the water to calm down enough to locate the exact position of the robonoid.
It only took a few seconds. She spotted a green blur and did not even have to think about it as she was already throwing her shield with force and creating another one.
But she was pulled out of that flow state once again; this time by her own actions.
A second thunderous explosion occurred while her sharper senses perceived the notes of a metallic-crystalline material breaking abruptly, so fast that the sound was drowned out by the roar of the shield hitting the water.
Nora stood there, comically silent, almost about to throw the other already formed shield.
"That's new," Nora said tentatively.
Since she did not know exactly what she had done, she could only pretend nothing was wrong. Luckily, Connie did not seem to notice it; perhaps thinking it was something she could do beforehand.
With the atmosphere relaxed and her strangely having the feeling of having rested, the two set out to continue with their no longer so banal girl talk; from romantic topics, in which Connie could only be called a third wheel in many cases, to the most trivial aspects of a teenage romance book that both had read recently, or even more trivial conversations.
Peace.
At least for a few hours, that was all Nora wanted, who closed her eyes with quite a bit of tranquility... until another loud crash was heard, causing one of her eyes to twitch with visible force.