Past

A/N: Most of this chapter takes place in the past. A lot of you said you wanted more of the romance to have been developed before Alaster got together with Velzard, so here it is. This is the 'spark' that caused Velzard to become interested in him in the first place.

Also, I'll be using Aura and Haki interchangeably here, but they essentially mean the same thing.

.~.~.~.

"Damn it, you're too strong!" I cried as I lay on my back, face gazing into the sky above me.

"That's a given. I'm a True Dragon, and even though you are strong for a human, I can still kill you with just my Aura alone." Velgrynd commented.

"Eh? Who decided that?" I said with a bit of defiance in my voice.

Velgrynd didn't say anything more and simply sighed before releasing a fraction of her aura, putting heavy pressure on both my mind and body. I grit my teeth, trying to endure it, but after several seconds, I found the world going dark all around me.

(3rd POV)

"See I told you," Velgrynd said in a somewhat sympathetic tone as she looked down at the white-haired unconscious human. "Big Brother may have favored you, but he didn't tell me not to allow you to die. I hope you keep in mind your limits from now on." She commented before turning and walking back towards the Heavenly Star Palace's main building, leaving her protege to lay in the garden unconscious.

As she walked, she spotted her beloved elder sister approaching from the opposite direction and a wave of happiness flooded her body. Velgrynd smiled brightly and, with a pep in her step, almost skipped over to her beloved elder sister whom she admired so much.

"Sister! How are you today? I thought you'd be asleep for a few more months." Velgrynd greeted.

Velzard looked up from the book she was reading as she acknowledged her younger sibling in front of her. "I thought so too, but the cave I was sleeping in collapsed on me and buried me alive." Velzard complained.

"That's odd, though shouldn't something like being buried alive not matters much to you? You could sleep through it and dig yourself out when your feeling well rested." Velgrynd asked.

"No, I was sleeping without suppressing my aura, so the stone would have eventually transmuted into magisteel and then Dragatite, which would have been a pain to crawl out of." She lamented.

"I see. So are you going to your usual spot in the garden to sleep then?" Velgrynd asked.

"I suppose. I much prefer to sleep in cold environments than warm ones like the garden, but it also has its good points." Velzard said before slowly walking past her sister and towards the garden.

"Well then have fun! I'm going to go meet up with Big Brother, also, that human he likes is unconscious there, so at least wake him up before releasing your aura and killing him." She warned before turning around and walking away.

"Human...?" Velzard thought before recalling the human who sent Feldway flying in the past, even though it almost killed him to do so. "Ah. That one." She said to herself before continuing towards the garden.

As she arrived, she looked upon the area, spotting the unconscious man laying on his back in the dirt. She smirked a bit at seeing his pathetic state sprawled out in front of her, easily deducing what had occurred by the faint trace of firey magicule which lingered in the air. She once again continued her jaunt toward her favorite spot, a small tree in the corner which seemed to be shaded throughout the day. As she walked, her eyes lingered on the human for a few moments, thinking about how odd he was.

Her only experience so far with humans is that they were either hopeless fools, like Jahil and the warriors who tried to slay her, or they were pathetic weak bugs, like the ones who worshipped her for defeating a monster or two for them in the past. They thought she cared about them at all when in reality, that monster's rampage had interrupted her nap with its sonic scream skill.

She couldn't fathom why her beloved older brother preferred them so. He said that they had unique souls and surprisingly strong egos for such frail bodies, but she had yet to witness anything of the sort.

As she brought her mind back into focus, she found herself standing in front of her favorite tree. There was a familiar small circle of soft dirt in the grass where she normally sat and had worn down the vegetation so that none would grow there. She smiled lightly at the sight and prepared to sit down when she heard a groan.

She turned to see the human sitting up on the floor, rubbing his head and mumbling something. She was in a small amount of shock at what she was seeing. She could have sworn that he was completely out cold a moment ago, and from the method used, the released aura of a True Dragon at close range, it was already a minor miracle he was alive at all.

"Damn, I can't even withstand their aura? I've got a long way to go." She heard him say.

She shook her head and sat down in her favorite spot. 'So it's the fool then.' She concluded as she allowed her drowsiness to flow into her and her aura began to leak out.

"Excuse me?" The man commented, forcing back the incoming wave of still sleep she was craving. Velzard internally clicked her young but on the outside politely smiled and opened her eyes to see the human not three steps in front of her.

"Yes? Is there anything I can do your you, Mr. Guest?" Velzard answered cordially, at least trying to be nice to the favorite 'pet' of her older brother.

"I'm sorry for interrupting your relaxation, I promise I'll make it up to you, but... do you mind if I stay here with you?" He asked.

"Hu?" Velzard was stunned by the sudden request.

"Ah! I didn't mean anything like that, it's just, the aura you were letting out just now was pretty intense and I wanted to try to withstand it as you slept... sorry. Forget I said anything. It makes me sound like a weirdo or stalker now that I say it out loud." He said then changed his mind.

"Uh... I mean it's a bit of a strange thing to ask, but why would you sound like a stalker?" Velzard asked, genuinely curious as to what he meant.

The man seemed to sweat a bit at the question. "Well, it's just... I just realized that what I'm essentially asking is for permission to stare at a beautiful woman sleeping until I pass out... It makes me sound like a perv." He said a bit embarrassed.

Velzard was stunned for a second before she burst out laughing.

"Hey! I said I'm sorry, ok! Forget we ever had this conversation." He said and turned around to walk away.

"Alright," Velzard commented, pulling herself together from her laughing fit earlier. "As repayment for making me laugh, I don't mind. You'll probably die when you fall unconscious anyways," She noted.

The man turned back around with a strange determination in his violet eyes. They stared deeply into her own, taking what she had said as a personal challenge against himself. "We'll see." He stated as he looked back at her.

Velzard was slightly taken aback by his determination and smirked. She kinda liked him.

With a satisfied sigh, Velzard closed her eyes and lay back against the tree. She decided to fake sleeping while releasing her aura to give him a good feel for how outmatched he truly was. As a reward for making her day a bit better, she'd collect his body when he fell unconscious again and keep him from dying. After all, it wasn't necessary to kill him and he did promise her a reward, though she wasn't holding out much hope on whatever he had in mind.

After a few moments of this, Velzard lightly opened one of her eyes and saw the man still standing there, shivering as he held himself firm. Velzard was impressed that he could withstand that level of her aura and decided to step it up a notch. She released an intense aura that coated the surrounding few meters in a thin layer of icy snow as the moisture in the air condensed immediately, but still, the man remained standing.

'I guess Velgrynd released more Aura than I originally thought to knock him out the first time.' She thought, slightly impressed. There were not many people in this world who could withstand her aura at such close range and survive. As a matter of fact, if it weren't for the automatic defenses of the Heavenly Stay Palace, the entire structure would have been a world of snow and ice under this level of her aura.

"I-I-I C-c-c-can-n-n-n do-o-o-o th-is-is-is a-a-a-all d-d-d-day-y-y-y." He muttered through chattering teeth, though the blue coloration on his extremities and frost-covered face begged to differ.

Velzard, now taking this man's determination more as a more serious challenge against her supremacy as a True Dragon decided on giving him one last burst. While not the full power of her aura, it was enough to freeze even the strongest of monsters who could raise entire countries to the ground.

In one last burst, with a slight leakage of actual Dragon Spirit Haki, Velzard released her aura. The sudden increase produced a shockwave that blew the man off his feet and through the air. For a split second, Velzard considered if she should try to catch him, as he was surely frozen solid by now and might shatter into tiny pieces upon impact with the floor, only to be surprised when the man's body moved, albeit sluggishly, to land on his feet, only for him to fail miserably and collapse.

Velzard stopped releasing her intense aura immediately and returned to her normal state. She was stunned for a moment as she saw him slowly try to get to his feet. The obvious frostbite from his encounter was rapidly healed thanks to some kind of regeneration skill. The same fire of determination burned in his eyes now as they did back when he first started. Velzard felt her face heat up slightly at the sight.

It was truly an admirable effort. Beings of much greater strength than that human had slipped into insanity or death from her haki at much greater distances and lower intensities than what he withstood. The only way to withstand it would be to have an unbreakable will, as even if he could survive the physical process of being frozen with his regeneration, his mind clearly wouldn't be protected from such an onslaught.

"Amazing." The words slipped out of her mouth in a quiet unconscious whisper. Thankfully, for her, it seems as though the human didn't hear it.

The man limped back over towards Velzard, slowly regaining a healthy stride as he approached and more of his body was regenerated from his previously near-frozen state. Velzard unconsciously stood herself to greet the human as he approached. Finally, after getting within a meter of each other, the man gave a defiant smile for a moment before giving a deep and sincere bow.

"Thank you for training me and my spirit." He said before raising his head again and looking her in the eyes with a smirk. "I'll make you something good, so watch out." He said before confidently striding away from the now-stunned True Dragon.

"Ah- wait... human" Velzard called out to him. He turned back and looked at her with a questioning gaze, wanting to know what it was that she wanted to know. "What is your name again?" Velzard asked.

Alaster tripped over nothing and nearly fell over hearing this question. "A-Alaster." he replied, seemingly having taken more mental damage from the question than her aura test.

Velzard smiled with a very small blush on her cheek. "Ah Alaster huh? I'll remember it!" She said with determination.

Alaster took another invisible hit when she called him 'Ah Alaster' and fell to his knees, trying not to cry.

Velzard, who knew his real name was just 'Alaster' without the 'Ah' at the beginning but was just teasing him, chuckled to herself at seeing him so worked up at her little tease.

'I see now... humans can be interesting indeed, big brother. This one is so lively.' Velzard thought in her mind.

...

Velzard awoke.

She rubbed her eyes as she looked around the 'room' she was sleeping in. It was a volcanic cave on the island she and her husband had gone to vacation on. He had been kind enough to go back and bring some modern furnishings here so they could enjoy both the caves that Velzard loved to sleep in and the bed she loved to 'sleep' in.

"A dream huh? No, a memory?" She muttered to herself.

She smiled lightly at that thought. She never would have imagined that the human she once thought of as nothing more than her big brother's pet would one day become her husband, nor did she ever believe that he'd one day match, and now surpass her own power. That shivering white-haired man who could barely stand before a fraction of her true aura now outmatched her at full strength.

It was an amusing thought and made her thankful for the world that her brother made, and his decision to take him in all those years ago.

Her nose twitched as her eyes refocused on the world around her once more. Standing in front of her was the man of her dreams holding a tray of brown treats he had once given to her as his 'thanks' to her like in her memories.

"Smores?" She asked.

"I was feeling nostalgic, plus I don't have to beg Veldanava to help me find Cocoa in other universes anymore to make the chocolate." He said with a smile.

With a brief twist of his wrist, he used the most powerful magic in existence, Primitive Magic, second only to true omnipotence itself, to conjure up a bar of chocolate and a marshmallow.

"Don't worry, I still cooked the gram crackers myself." He said as he pointed his finger to a portable stove in the corner.

Velzard smiled at this and stood up, taking one of the treats into her hand on the way up. He could have used the same power which twists and warps reality to create the entire treat, but still went out of his way to actually back the cracker part fresh just for her.

"I love you, you goof." She said, giving him a kiss on the cheek before taking a bite out of the gooey, warm, and delicious treat and allowing herself to fall back down onto the bed in a sitting position.

She would never admit it, but this was her favorite food, and she planned on enjoying it.

"Well of course you love me. Everyone loves me!" He said with the same confidence and arrogance as he had all those years ago.

Velzard smiled. Yeah, she loved this world.