“All I need to do next is select a delivery method?” Luna tilted the holo stick to show the screen to me a bit better.

“Yeah, you can go ahead and check the drone delivery method. It’s a bit more expensive, but that way you should get your package tomorrow.”

“Can’t we take the cheaper option?”

“We could, but that takes very very long.” I looked over and scrolled down to the bottom of the page, where all the delivery methods were. “The others would all require at least a week and they aren’t even all cheaper than the drone”.

“That long!?”

“The others mainly require humans to do the work. Getting the package here also takes a lot longer. The drone is just the best option on this side of the world.” I shrugged.

“Oh, okay.” She hovered her finger over the drone option, looking at me. I nodded in confirmation.

Just like that, the order was placed and my bank account was just a tiny bit lighter than before. Not that I minded, at all. And it was not like I was going to run out of money any time soon. Being a war-hero luckily came with a war-hero paycheck in my case.

“What now?” Luna asked, putting the holo stick away.

“Now we wait.” I smirked.

“I meant, what are we going to do now.” She pushed me lightly by the shoulder.

I chuckled. “Hehe. How about we just cuddle a bit? I’m still not really hungry.”

“I could live with that.” She smiled.

“Alright, let me get the fireplace going again for some added coziness and after that I’m all yours.” I leant in and gave her a kiss, after which I stood up to go and get some fire going.

“Oh!” Luna called out as I did. “Could I light it? I kinda want to try. But I don’t really know how to do it, though.”

“It’s very self-explanatory.” I turned around and offered my hand to help her out of the sofa. Once I had pulled her out, Luna walked past me and crouched down in front of the fireplace. “You just need to introduce the fire to the wood, think you can manage that?”

“Maybe only just.” She looked back at me and stuck out her tongue.

I smiled and walked over, crouching down next to her. I handed over the first of the logs and then started explaining how to best light a fire. As expected of Luna, she got it rather quickly.

“It’s quite fun to do things with your hands sometimes, isn’t it?” She said as she had lit up the logs and watched it burn with gleeful eyes.

“It is. That’s also one of the reasons why I like to repair things with my own hands when I can, rather than rely on a repairman or a maintenance droid or something like that. It’s fun to see things work that you have just put together yourself. It just adds that little bit extra. It’s the same with cooking.”

“That’s true.” Luna nodded. “A sense of pride and accomplishment.”

I chuckled. “I guess so, indeed.”

After watching the fire for a little bit longer, the both of us got back into the sofa. I got in first just so I could be the big spoon for my beautiful girlfriend. When she was nestled against me, I took a blanket and draped it over us.

“I might fall asleep like this…” Luna commented, turning her head just a little to the left towards me.

“I don’t mind if you do. The thing that matters most is that you are comfy.” I kissed the back of her head.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“I’m definitely comfy, alright.” She giggled and turned her face towards the fireplace again. “You do really have a beautiful home, Lauren. I really wish that I could say the same about mine.”

“This can be your home too.” I pulled her closer by wrapping my arms around her waist. “There’s nothing that stops you, right?”

“... there’s the duty towards my people, though…”

“That’s your mission, but not your home. Home is where you want it to be, not where you are from. For me, those two just coincide, but it really doesn’t need to. You can still uphold your duties towards your people while being happy in your own right.”

“Hmmm, some of them would definitely call that some kind of heretical thoughts.”

“Then they definitely have their priorities backwards if you ask me.”

“You’re not wrong about that…” Luna paused for a while. “I just hope it will never come to a clash between Earth and the Conglomerate.”

A light just started burning in a dark room inside of my head. “If you consider Earth your home… And your duty to your people is to avoid a clash between the Conglomerate and Earth, then doing so is helping both your own people, as your home, right? I know that changes absolutely nothing, but that’s kinda funny now that I think about it.”

“Avoiding the destruction of earth is funny?” Luna turned her head towards me slightly yet again.

“You know what I meant.” I prodded her in the side, which evoked a little giggle out of her.

“I do. It does sound kind of poetic if you say it like that.” Luna fell silent after that, perhaps lost in thoughts.

“By the way.” I broke the silence. “Do you think it would be that easy for the Conglomerate to destroy Earth? You’ve seen the buildup in orbit, right?”

“Hmm.” Luna hummed. “That’s true, Earth is really building up its military might, but that might be a bit counterproductive as it’s possible that The Conglomerate will see that as a threat. On the other hand… We have sent reports about what we have encountered during our travels and that we’ve reported back to Earth about it. So it would only be logical for a species that has encountered such a threat to build up forces rather quickly… And as we have had quite hard proof that we have fought the Empire, it might be so that The Conglomerate might actually see Earth as a useful ally.”

“I’m much more of a fan of the allied option rather than the other.”

“Yeah…” Luna nodded. “Me too. Although you will need to be a bit careful with that as well.”

“What exactly do you mean with that?”

“There’s a reason why it’s called the Conglomerate, you know.” She replied. “It’s because it used to be one entity that along the way has conglomerated more and more of its neighbors. They started off as allies or vassals, but have now all joined together.”

“Peacefully?”

"Mostly. But it’s not good for their individuality. If you join the Conglomerate, you need to play by the Conglomerate’s rule book after all.”

“Hmm, I don’t really think that’s going to happen any time soon with us humans. If I know anything about us as a species, and our leadership as a whole, it’s that we do like to be ourselves quite a bit.”

“That’s also the impression I got. But it’s still something to be mindful about.”

“One step at a time, I’d say. We’ll see when we get there.”

“That might happen sooner or later, though. Space might be a very big place, but with your luck and if we are ever allowed to leave again, we’ll probably run into them after some time…”

“That’s quite a bit of foreshadowing, isn’t it?”

“I suppose so.” Luna definitely sounded quite down now, but I had the perfect plan to cheer her up.

I leant in to whisper into her ear. “Hey, at least I know one thing for sure.”

“And what’s that?”

“It’s that first contact already went splendidly, wouldn’t you agree?”

Before she could reply, I softly nibbled her ear. That made her yelp.

“L-Lauren!”

“Hmmm?” I acted like I didn’t know about anything and just continued kissing the back of her neck. While at first she kind of tried to get me to stop, after only a couple of seconds that restraint faded away like snow in the desert.

“You are unbelievable.”

“Unbelievably cool, handsome and an amazing girlfriend?”

I couldn’t see it, but I knew Luna was just rolling her eyes at my comment right now. She giggled and then pushed herself back into me. “Shush… Just continue what you are doing.”

“Aye aye, ma’am. You don’t need to tell me that twice.” With Luna in between my arms, I just kept kissing her softly for a while longer before we just continued cuddling normally.

After some time, I noticed Luna’s breathing had become even calmer. So when I lifted myself just a tad so I could see her face, it wasn’t a big surprise to see she had closed her eyes and had dozed off. I hummed to myself contently and laid back down behind my girlfriend. Honestly, if I never had to return to space ever again, and the two of us could live like this forever. I’d be perfectly fine with that. But who else could prevent Earth from getting into some shit with alien empires? I do feel a lot more comfortable to bear that responsibility myself, rather than to hand it over to someone I don’t know…