Edited by: ASaltedFish
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Everyone was happy to help Juniper adjust to his new name. It was still very new to him, but over time, he knew that he would come to feel more connected with his name.
After leaving MPE60, the First Fleet slowly made their way back to Imperial Star. Juniper and Ellery were discussing the legalities of getting adopted into the Aster family and creating a new identity for Juniper.
Luckily, with the help of Akimitsu, it wasn't too difficult, and the process shouldn't take too long.
Since Juniper didn't have a terminal, he had to follow Ellery or Edros if he wanted to leave his room, just in case he got lost or bumped into trouble.
Well, it wasn't that he had to, but he only wanted to leave his room if there was someone he knew. If he had to be put in a situation where a stranger was talking to him and no one was there to help him, he felt he would have a panic attack…
He recognized he needed psychological help. He was able to see a doctor on the ship, but he would need to continue the treatment even when he got back to the Imperial Star.
Occasionally, when they landed on a resource planet, Juniper would leave his room to look for rocks to add to his collection.
By the time they reached the Imperial Star, a little more than a month had passed by. Edros had to store all of Juniper's new rocks in his storage ring for easy transport.
Edros and Akimitsu followed Ellery and Juniper back to their mansion. They wanted to stick together a bit longer before having to report back to the Emperor and the Guide Association. Not only that, they had to take Juniper to get his terminal and verify his new identity.
"Since we are back, you should come see my collection," Juniper said while he walked beside Edros. Just like he promised, he wanted Edros to see his collection and to one day see Edros' collection.
"Okay, Jun, I have time to take a look." Even if he didn't have time, he would get Akimitsu to make time for him. It was his chance to get closer to Juniper!
The two of them walked to Juniper's safe room with Ellery and Akimitsu following behind them.
Ellery and Akimitsu saw Edros talking a lot, which was strange, but it made sense since Juniper talked even less than Edros.
"Look at those two… It seems like Juniper is having fun." Ellery chuckled, seeing Juniper take out his favorite rock from the journey. Coincidentally, it was the one that Ellery first picked for him.
"When two quiet people get together, one of them has to do the talking, and it seems Edros decided to take on that role…" Akimitsu knew how awkward Edros could be because he often gave him lessons on holding conversations so he would be able to have longer talks with Juniper.
At least they were having fun and enjoying each other's presence.
"Why don't we leave those two alone and call my friends over?" Ellery excitedly sat down on the sofa in the living room, no longer looking in the direction of Juniper's room. "I want you to officially meet them as my boyfriend!"
Ellery and Akimitsu made their relationship official just after leaving MPE60. Since then, they enjoyed their honeymoon phase.
"Yes, let's invite them over!" Akimitsu also wanted to introduce himself to them formally as Ellery's boyfriend.
Ellery immediately messaged his close friends, Silve Forrest, Yang Saem, and Liáng Huā. He hadn't seen them in a while and wanted to know what they were up to.
After getting his message, the trio stopped everything they were doing and rushed over to Ellery's house. It had been so long since they had seen Ellery. They also wanted to meet his new boyfriend!
"They are coming! Let's get the robots to prepare some snacks and refreshments."
Akimitsu watched Ellery bouncing around while supervising the robots and couldn't help but smile.
When Ellery was sharing a body with Juniper, he was more cautious of his movements and speech because it could easily exhaust Juniper, who had lower energy. Now that he had his body back, he didn't have to restrain himself anymore.
It didn't take long for Ellery's friends to arrive. Yang was the closest because he lived in the workers' quarters and came as soon as he finished his task. Then Silve and Liáng Huā came soon after.
Silve, who had a hamster quantum beast, was working for the Guide Association. He was single and wasn't looking for a partner just yet.
As for Liáng Huā, who worked at a nearby guide center, she had a guinea pig quantum beast and married her childhood friend, who happened to be a sentinel. Even though she was married, she hadn't had a ceremony yet because she was waiting for Ellery to come back.
Seeing his close friends, Ellery ran over to give them each a hug. "It's been so long! Come over here to meet Akimitsu, and then we can all catch up with each other. I want to know how you all have been since graduation."
The trio was shocked to see the Beast God's mark on Ellery's forehead, but they knew not to ask questions about it and sat down first.
Ellery sat next to Akimitsu on one sofa while his close friends sat on the other sofa together.
Akimitsu finally introduced himself. "Hello, my name is Ito Akimitsu. You all can call me Akimitsu. I am Ellery's boyfriend."
The introduction was just for formalities – everyone knew who Akimitsu was. He was Edros' Adjutant! How could they not know him?!
One by one, everyone introduced themselves, but Akimitsu already knew the basic information about each of Ellery's friends. It didn't take very long for Silve and Liáng Huā to ask when they started dating and how it came to that.
"I fell in love with Ellery first and asked him to be my boyfriend on our trip back to the Imperial Star!" Akimitsu proudly stated.
"We figured you were the one who fell in love and asked first." Yang chuckled with Silve and Liáng Huā agreeing with him.
Even though Liáng Huā joined in on the laughter, she still felt a bit sad for her idol, Marshal Caecius.
"Would it be rude for me to ask about Marshal Caecius?"
She wanted to say, 'What about Marshal Caecius?' but she felt that would be a bit rude.
"Oh, he's with Juniper right now," Ellery casually answered. "They are looking at his crystal collection. If he is comfortable, you can meet Juniper and Edros."
"Whose Juniper?" Silva couldn't help but ask. In their friend group or even at the Gardening Club, there was no one named Juniper.
"He's…" Akimitsu suddenly felt it was a bit difficult to explain who Juniper was and how he got there. "Ellery's twin?" Technically, he wasn't wrong.
He stumbled with the explanation because they were not there to witness Ellery coming back with a twin who looks like them and had the Beast God's mark on their forehead.
Ellery looked at Akimitsu and sighed. "Let me explain instead."
With a similar explanation he gave to the First Fleet, he talked about how his spiritual energy was getting stronger and stronger with two quantum beasts connected to his spiritual sea. He was afraid that he might explode with the amount of energy he had, so he sought out the Beast God to see what could be done to help him.
Finally, the Beast God was able to call upon another soul to take control of Lune and create a body for them. That person was named Juniper, who was adopted into the Aster family.
"Since he has control of Lune, he will be in charge of Edros' guiding sessions. Thankfully, those two get along very well." Ellery playfully said his last sentence.
Hearing that, Liáng Huā was relieved and couldn't wait to meet Juniper. "Then, can we meet him today?"
"Juniper? Well, let me text him and see what he says."
Juniper knows them, but he also doesn't like surprise visits, so Ellery felt he would have to schedule another day for them to meet so Juniper could be more prepared…
"He said next time. He's feeling a bit tired and wants to take a nap." Well, a nap with Edros. Those two…
"I understand. Let's plan our next hangout!"
After that, the five of them had many conversations lasting for hours.
*****
Edros helped Juniper organize the new crystals and rocks into his collection. While he didn't have a lot in his collection, there was a huge variety.
The two of them wore gloves and got to work organizing them by size, color, and type.
Juniper's collection was a lot more diverse than Edros'. He had inexpensive rocks, with many being found randomly on the ground, which added a lot of variety.
Edros had larger and more expensive crystals in his collection, though.
After reorganizing Juniper's collection, he took Edros around to show him some of his favorite ones and let him take a look. It was his way of bonding with someone.
Edros gently held the ones that Juniper pointed out and even picked a few favorites from the collection.
In this way, the two of them quietly looked through Juniper's collection, occasionally giving comments until he got tired and wanted to nap.