“It’s perfect!” Arylos howled in a booming voice, shirtless and covered in sweat with his arms crossed. He stood proud as he showed Iris his perfect creation.

Iris was left shocked looking at what he had done to the basement. Apparently, he had been working the past few months in the basement trying to furnish it. And now it is complete. He turned it into a full blacksmithing shop with many of the equipment handmade by him; different furnaces, various anvils, tool racks on the walls, polishing and finishing tools, various racks covered in dried hides and the like. All of the equipment was seamlessly assembled and positioned for optimisation and Arylos even added ventilation to keep the area clear of soot and cool despite the heat of the forges. He even found room to put an area with different weights and dummies and even a lounge with comfortable chairs.

Iris had the same sparkle in her eyes that Arylos had as she admired his work area. She even noticed that the walls and ceiling were padded to isolate noise. It was perfect for him; a secluded place where he can work in peace. A place just for him.

“This is incredible~!” she squealed in delight and gave him a series of firm slaps on his back. “You actually have a place for yourself!”

“You got it!” Arylos let out in a booming belly laugh.

“Do you plan to tell Garris you quit?” Iris asked, walking through the workshop and admiring Arylos’s work.

“To be fair, my Khymr position is more honorary than anything,” Arylos responded while still laughing. “This lets me do something when I have nothing else to do.”

Iris had a realisation come to her as she turned to face him. “Does that mean you were doing all of the cooking and cleaning because you were bored?”

Arylos’s cheeks went red hot. “I-I mean, I also felt that I had to do something since you’ve been stuck with me.”

“You were bored!” Iris exclaimed with a big smile, enjoying this side of the Titan. “Although, if I had to be honest, your cooking is far better than mine.”

“Because I season things,” Arylos scoffed. “I actually use spices and seasonings in my food and carefully choose my ingredients. You just throw things together.”

Iris felt the selfsame embarrassment get thrown right back at her as her face went red. “Are you saying I’m not a good housewife??”

“You said it, not me!” Arylos laughed with his eyes closed as his booming voice bounced off of the walls. “I certainly get more spouse points compared to you.” Arylos reacted quickly and grabbed a hammer that was thrown at him, keeping his eyes closed and a warm smile on his face. “And didn’t you feel all bad after you slapped me a couple of weeks ago?” he continued.

“You’re a big idiot, you know that?” Iris exclaimed, her face becoming more red.

“You really should come up with a new insult,” Arylos laughed as he set the hammer down on an anvil next to him.

“Why when it fits you perfectly?” Iris bit back with a pout. “You’re big, and you’re an idiot. Therefore, you’re a big idiot.”

Arylos’s smile widened as he found the perfect comeback. “And you’re little, and you’re a girl. Therefore, you’re a little girl.”

More blood rushed to Iris’s face and she had to shake her head viciously to get the blood out of her cheeks. “You see, things like that are why you won’t get a girl to like you,” she growled and made her way back towards the stairs.

“Funny thing about that, I’m pretty sure there is a girl who likes me,” Arylos teased while crossing his arms.

Iris froze in place at the base of the stairs, feeling blood rush back to her face and her expression turned into a scowl. Arylos watched as she slowly turned towards him with small bolts of white lightning bouncing off of her body. “Who?” she growled as the lightning grew in intensity.

Arylos raised his arms into a shrug with a warm smile. Suddenly, he saw the lightning explode as Iris rushed towards him in a flash of light and pushed him against the wall. He forgot that this girl is half Templarian and her powers are fueled by her emotions.

“Who is it?” she repeated as her brown eyes shone a brilliant blue.

Arylos chuckled nervously as he gently pushed her off of him. “It was just a joke, a bad one at that.”

The lightning and blue glow around Iris’s body faded and she turned away from him. “You’re a big idiot,” she pouted. “You can’t just tease a girl’s heart like that.”

As she walked away, Arylos let out a chuckle. “Such a tsundere,” he whispered under his breath. “I guess it wasn’t a bad joke after all.”

“By the way, do you plan to sell the stuff you make?” Iris asked from the stairs.

Arylos felt the question shook him. He didn’t think that far ahead. “I guess I could take my stuff to a stall at one of the merchant districts.”

“That sounds like a lot of work,” Iris voiced, looking around at all of the equipment while putting a hand on her waist. “You could sell from here. It might make things a little easier for you.”

“You won’t like a bunch of people coming into the house and coming down here, would you?” Arylos asked as he put the hammer she threw at him back on its rack.

“You have a point,” Iris answered while rubbing her chin. She then turned to the wall behind her, on the landing of the stairway that led to the flight to the hallway upstairs. “Is this wall level with the ground? You could put a door here so people can just come straight down here and not go through the house.”

Arylos thought about it and went to the stairs and came up next to her, examining the wall she was referencing. “I don’t think it’s level, but I could do some digging to make it level and add a set of stairs,” he suggested while stroking his beard. “If that can be done, you may be on to something; they just avoid the upstairs entirely.”

“Sounds like you have more home improvement projects,” Iris teased.

“I think at this point, they’re honey-do projects,” Arylos returned.

“You wanted a peaceful life here, this is the cost,” Iris teased while patting Arylos’s chest and making her way back upstairs. “I thought you were the one who was the most spouse material between the two of us.”

Arylos followed her and made sure he was safely on the other side of the lockable door and closed it. “I didn’t know you were in the market for one,” he teased her.

“I wasn’t,” Iris responded while crossing her arms with a scoff. “You just took that role for yourself and didn’t check with me, not that I mind.”

Arylos stroked his beard and tilted his head, doing the calculations in his head. “So you don’t mind that, you also got excited about taking my last name, you got mad when I told you there is a girl who likes me, and got sad when you thought I left. Something tells me that you were the one who put me into the role of househusband and that you are in the market for one.”

Iris had never felt such confliction before; an urge to both hug him and hit him. She felt blood rush to her cheeks and ears as she shook. After a moment, she calmed herself down with a sigh and raised her voice to speak but cut herself off, embarrassed by her own thoughts.

“If that’s how you want to live your life here, you’re more than welcome to,” she eventually voiced. “I don’t want to force you into that role though, so only if you want to.”

“It’s the role I fit best,” Arylos responded and walked past Iris and towards the living room.

“I feel like you and Rikio have been talking to each other a little too much then,” Iris teased as she looked at the big Titan covered in tattoos. “Usually, the big burly man is the man of the house.” Suddenly, thoughts came to her that she needed answers to. “Wait, are you even a guy?”

“What do you mean?” Arylos asked as he turned to face Iris.

“Like, are you male?” Iris clarified, feeling a bit of embarrassment. “Or does gender not apply to you Titans?”

Arylos let out a chuckle as he shook his head. “No, even as a Titan, I am male. Or I guess the closest equivalent to male.”

Iris felt a sigh of relief come to her as she approached him. “Good. If you made it weird, I was going to slap you.”

“I’m pretty sure you would have slapped me anyway,” Arylos teased.

“Then, what about the scars and tattoos?” Iris asked, taking a closer look at his body. “Are they yours?”

“Yes, they are,” Arylos answered as he turned and reached for a shirt he had draped over the back of the sofa. “When I took control, I changed his body physically to meet my needs. Changed the height, muscle density, much of the appearance, and so on. And so the scars and tattoos were imprinted on.”

“So you made yourself that tall?” Iris teased while considering her own height and her own bodily features. She felt a little embarrassed as she looked down on her own chest. “Being able to change your body like that must be convenient,” she whispered, pulling her shirt and sash out.

“It’s a blessing and a curse,” Arylos chuckled. He then turned and saw Iris examining her chest. “Don’t get self-conscious now,” he teased her. “That’s not going to be good for anyone.”

Iris repositioned her shirt after shaking herself free. “But Bellona looks so perfect,” she complained while leaning against the wall. “She’s so pretty, full bodied and just beautiful with such smooth skin. It makes me jealous that I don’t look that good.”

“Don’t be jealous of her,” Arylos cut in while crossing his arms. “She didn’t always look like that. Templarians reincarnate during points of their lives, changing their appearance and even gender.”

“So you’re telling me Bellona was once a guy?” Iris teased, finding new jokes she could bring to Bellona.

“Not that I know of, but I have seen a couple of her incarnations,” Arylos answered. “When I met her, she was taller and covered in muscles and had long purple hair.”

“Purple hair,” Iris repeated, reaching for her own brown hair. “I know my hair can go white when I use my power, but I wish it stayed that way.”

“Why are you hung up about how you look?” Arylos asked while tilting his head. “Is it really that important to you?”

Iris sighed and moved away from the wall. “We humans care about our appearance for our own sakes as well as for social reasons. We fall in love with looks, Arylos. We look at someone and think of them as attractive and our love grows on that.”

“You are an organic race,” Arylos wondered aloud while stroking his beard. “Early on, you had to rely on physical appearances to find mates and that passed on beneficial traits and built your entire breeding process on that.”

“Don’t call it breeding!” Iris pleaded, shaking her head in embarrassment.

“I’m just saying what it is,” Arylos responded, confused by her reaction.

“No one calls it that here!” Iris continued, hiding her face.

Arylos tilted his head again, not following. “But your humanly obsession with making a family is rooted in that. Your species evolved to eat, breed, and die, and a lot of those traits have remained in you, hence your attraction to physical appearance and desire to procreate.”

“Stop it!” Iris continued shaking her head and keeping her red face behind her hands.

Arylos had a thought come to him and he realised why she was acting like this. “You forgot that I’m a Titan again, did you? That we created your world to understand life.”

Iris let out a sigh and finally lowered her hands. “Yes, I did. I don’t think of you as a Titan because it just makes things awkward.”

“You can’t let that happen again,” Arylos pushed. “No matter what, you cannot let yourself forget what I am; I am a Titan in the body of a kid who died thousands of years ago.”

“But what if that doesn’t matter to me?” Iris asked, as if hurt.

“It has to matter,” Arylos insisted with a frown. “You cannot forget what I am, do you understand?”

Iris bowed her head, unwilling to admit it but she knew she had to. She always treated Arylos like a friend and he seemed to like it; why was he so insistent on this now? She preferred that he was a friend and not a Titan.

“But you're my friend,” she whispered.

“I can be your friend as well, just do not forget what I really am,” Arylos replied, softening his voice. “You can have me as your friend, but do not forget that who you’re talking to is really a creature puppeting this body so he can speak with you. Don’t see the man on the outside; you need to remember the creature inside me.”

Iris nodded slowly; he had a point. Was she growing close to him because she saw him as a human? In that case, were all of her emotions really for Korseis and not Arylos? She couldn’t tell anymore and now her heart couldn’t give her a straight answer.

Her mind and her heart could never agree