52 Progress on all fronts (1/2)

His mind finally at peace, Joshua slept like an angel. His dreams involved exploring the universe on a spaceship, building giant robots and solving a bizarre murder case involving someone stabbed to death with frozen carrots. The culprit was obviously the pet rabbit.

When he finally woke up, he found himself lying in a bed. He quickly recognized the place as Catherine's room, except she had added an additional bed for him. She was asleep in the other one on the other side of the room.

He jumped out of the bed, feeling really energetic.

'Looks like I've recovered all my energy, I wonder how long I've been asleep.'

[28 hours 32 minutes and 16 seconds.]

'Luna! Good to see you're operational again! Wait, I was unconscious for that long?'

[After the intruding presence was cleared, User Catherine deemed it safe to turn the system back on. This allowed your energy reserve to recharge rather quickly and you could have been woken up earlier, but User Catherine insisted on letting you sleep.]

'I see.'

He checked the time, Catherine's alarm clock would go off in about ten minutes.

Looking at her beautiful sleeping face, Joshua suddenly felt warm on the inside. Thinking back to everything he had blurted out to Diana, he couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed, especially since Catherine had heard all of it. Oh well, he had just spoken the truth and he was the senior of the two, he should act more like it.

He knelt next to her and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

'Thank you for everything. I would never have overcome this without your help.'

###

Catherine woke up a few minutes later. The first thing she saw was that Joshua had woken up, which relieved her greatly. However, he was currently kneeling in front of her, his eyes closed and his hands clasped together. She instinctively bit her lip, she had heard everything he had said the day before and didn't really know what to make of it.

”You know I'm not an actual goddess, right? I can't hear your prayers.”

”You are to me, that's all that matters. You'll better get used to it, once we realize your plans, the whole world will venerate you as one.”

She sighed in reply. She knew Joshua enough to tell his jokes apart from his serious statements and he totally meant what he said. ”My goal has never been to become the subject of idolatry.”

”And how do you think people will view you once you succeed?”

”Look, those words you said… I was really moved by them and yet… I'd like it if you stopped acting like this. I don't want my Joshua to turn into a blind zealot, devoted to my cause. You're at your best when you're the good old crazy inventor Joshua Lockman. Please, don't change your attitude for my sake.

She leaned forward and softly kissed Joshua's lips.

”There is some irresistible charm to that endless creativity of yours, you know?”

####

Joshua was taken aback for a moment. He had wondered if he should change his attitude toward her. He had pondered over many idiotic scenarios, like changing his appearance to look like a medieval knight in armor but discarded all of them in the end. If she wanted crazy Joshua, he wouldn't disappoint her. As for what the future held in store for them, who knows…

Joshua grinned and said: ”If that's what you want, fine. I do have one request, though.”

”And that is?”

”Can you still baptize me with some holy water?”

Hearing this, Catherine sighed, rolled her eyes and made a flood of water appear above Joshua's head. She let the water flow for about 30 seconds as Joshua just put his arms in the air while laughing. When the flood stopped, he was drenched to the bone.