Annime: LA!

Sprx: The rest of the team, and I are very mad at you.

Annime: …Why?

Gibson: Because of how badly you have hurt Chiro!

Annime: Calm down, this is only chapter 3.

Antauri: Yes, we should just calm down and wait and see what happens.

Otto: Annime doesn't own SRMTHFG or anything belonging to someone else!

Chapter 3

Chiro was up by 6:13 in the morning.

'Great,' Chiro thought to himself. 'I was hoping for a couple more hours of sleep.' He walked into the kitchen to see five robot monkeys making breakfast. Chiro just stood there and stared. He felt like crying right then and there, but held himself together.

"Hey, Chiro," Otto said. The rest of the team turned towards the teen standing in the door way.

"Is something wrong, Chiro?" Nova asked.

"Oh, no, no, I'm fine," Chiro replied. He sat at the table and Antauri sat across from him.

"So, how did you sleep, Chiro?" Antauri asked.

"It was one of the best I've had in years," Chiro answered in almost a whisper.

"And why is that?" Antauri spoke.

"Antauri…just forget it." Chiro stood up and left the kitchen. The whole team turned from their leaving leader to their second in command. Antauri kept his eyes on the door.

"Gibson, Otto, once you're done eating breakfast start that time machine. I'm going to talk to Chiro," Antauri instructed, eyes not leaving the door. He floated out of the room and tried to sense where Chiro was. 'Let's try the roof of the robot,' Antauri thought.

Chiro sat on the roof of the robot trying to think of excuses for his attitude. He couldn't find any that would foul Antauri, so he sighed in irritation. What he didn't know was a curtain silver monkey was right behind him. He lifted his sleeve and Antauri was able to get a glance at it before Chiro covered it up again and hugged himself. Antauri was able to see cuts on the tiny pail wrist. He wasn't sure how many were there, but he decided that the number of cuts didn't matter; what mattered was that Chiro cut himself at all.

"How long, Chiro," Antauri asked softly. Chiro jumped as he was still sitting and his head swung around to face the silver monkey.

"How long what, Antauri?" Chiro asked back.

Antauri came up to the child and took the child's wrist. He slowly took the sleeve and had his eyes meet Chiro's before he slowly slid the sleeve down. There were many red cuts that Antauri didn't want to read at the moment, but he did stare. Chiro kept his eyes on Antauri. How could Antauri, who had been back for LESS than 24 hours, be able to figure this out so easily? And, why was he being so corporative with the silver monkey; nobody else in the past two years could do this.

Antauri looked at Chiro with new worry in his eyes while Chiro stared at him in wonder.

"Chiro," Antauri spoke in an almost whisper. "What happened to your wrists?"

Chiro opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He couldn't lie to Antauri; his conscious wouldn't allow it. His heart swelled at the thought of how much the team would worry and guilt consumed him. Antauri continued to look at the Chiro. He could see the emotions run through Chiro's eyes.

"Chiro, please, how long?" Antauri asked again. Antauri held Chiro's wrist so carefully; so very lovingly.

"I-I-I-I," Chiro stuttered, finally facing away from Antauri to his wrists.

"You what, Chiro," Antauri pressed on.

"I-I-I gave in," Chiro said. "It was 6 months after you guys disappeared. I couldn't take it anymore. I'm sorry, Antauri."

"Come with me; we'll go get these cuts taken care of. Everything is going to be ok, Chiro." Antauri lead Chiro back into the robot, and Chiro found it hard to stop saying how sorry he was the whole way. Finally, once they had reached the med bay, Antauri put a metal finger over the young boy's mouth.

"Chiro," Antauri said, still in the same quiet voice he was in when they were on the top of the robot. "Calm down; it's going to be ok." This silenced the nervous Chiro and Antauri helped the boy onto the table.

"Oww; Otto that was not pleasant," Gibson screeched. Gibson tried to throw the hammer back at Otto, but his anger caused him to miss his target.

"Sorry, Gibson," Otto said with a grin. "I didn't mean to."

"Oh, really; then why are you so humored?"

"I really didn't mean to."

"Well, please don't let it happen again."

Otto nodded and they went back to work on the machine.

"How's it going in here, guys?" Nova asked waking into Otto's personal lab.

"We are getting there; slowly, but getting there," Otto answered first.

"Our progress won't be as fast as we would like, but we will just have to deal with that the way it is." Gibson turned to Nova and pointed to the open compartment with wires all jumbled up and sticking out of it.

"How long do you think it will take?" Nova asked. Gibson thought for a moment and looked up at Otto.

"How long do you estimate, Otto?" Gibson spoke to Otto. Otto put on his thinking face and hummed.

"Well…it may take five to 10 days?" Otto estimated.

"Well, even if it's done by that time, we are not completely curtain it will work," Gibson added.

"Oh, it'll work," Nova suggested. "You two aren't stupid enough for it not to work." With this, Nova left the room and the two baffled monkeys along with it.

"Do we…take that as a compliment?" Otto asked Gibson.

"I…suppose we do." Gibson went back to his work. Otto did the same as well after shrugging a little.

"Chiro, I want you to tell me what tools you have been using to do this to yourself," Antauri asked the black haired boy.

"Kitchen knives, razors, sometimes mechanical pencils with the lead pushed all the way inside the pencil." Chiro answered. "There-there maybe more, I can't remember right now."

"When was the last time you did it?"

"Umm…two days ago, I think."

"You think?"

"W-well, sometimes day get jumbled into each other."

"Ok, now which wrist did you cut last?"

"My left wrist, I'm pretty sure."

"It does seem to be the most damaged."

"I did cut that one the most."

"Why?"

"The right…was the one you used to hold when you needed one of my hands in meditation training."

Antauri looked in Chiro's eyes for the first time since he started bandaging the young leader's wrists. He once again found a lost little boy in those big blue depths. Antauri looked back at Chiro's wrists and finished wrapping them…but he really looked down from Chiro's eyes to keep himself from crying.

"Hey, Antauri, are you in here?" Sprx voice rang as the red monkey walked into the med bay.

"Yes; do you need something?"

Sprx watched Antauri pat Chiro's wrapped up wrist and a curious look came on the pilots face.

"What's going on?" Sprx asked.

"…Something happened while we were gone…and I was helping Chiro take care of it," Antauri answered.

Sprx just tilted his head for a moment but then dismissed the subject.

"Ok, well, Otto and Gibson told me to tell you that everything is in perfect and working order."

"Why wouldn't everything be that way?" Chiro asked Sprx.

"Well, since we have been gone for so long Antauri thought it would be best that we check everything out."

Chiro stood up from the table and looked from Antauri to Sprx, and then back to Antauri.

"I was here," Chiro spoke bluntly; he also sounded offended. Sprx nervously laughed at this.

"Y-yea, but Antauri thought we should check everything just in case-,"

"I failed?" Chiro interrupted.

"No-no, not at all; to make sure…to make sure…"

"To make sure that we taught you well enough to stand on your own two feet," Antauri said, helping the nervous Sprx.

"Oh…ok…that-that's good," Chiro mumbled. Sprx relaxed and looked at Antauri with curiosity.

"I'll speak about it later," Antauri spoke silently, only lipping the words. Sprx nodded and left the room. Antauri helped Chiro off the med bay's table and back into the control room.

Annime: So, what do you guys think?

Antauri: …Why?

Annime: Antauri, come here. (Whispers something into Antauri's ear.)

Antauri: Ok, I feel better now.

Gibson: Please review.