Chapter 10
Decisions
"After you transformed you tried attacking Holland again. The look in your eyes was enough to get Holland serious. Hap, Renton, Ken-goh, Stoner had to use all their strength to restrain you. Talho hit the back of your head to knock you out." Mischa said
"I see. So they know?" I asked
"Yeah they know." Mischa said
"Did you already explain things to them?" I asked
"No I didn't. I told them I'd allow you to complain it yourself." Mischa said
I then noticed that not only was Renton there but Eureka and Amarante too.
"Shawn what happened to you. You were totally different this time." Eureka said
"Well Gonzy told me that he didn't know what type of abilities I'll acquire and what will happen when my emotions peak, but I guess we found out some of them already. Mind sharing and Rage." I said
"So we shouldn't allow people to anger you to that level again." Renton said
I nodded in response.
"Sorry about that Renton." I said sounding ashamed.
Amarante came over and sat down on the medical bed.
"It's ok Shawn. Friends forgive each other." Renton said
"What about Holland? I'm worried he might throw me off his ship." I said
"Well it's not his entire ship everybody pulls their weight so it's everybody's ship in a way." Renton said "As for Holland. Talho gave him an earful as did Eureka and Amarante." Renton said
I looked over at Eureka then Amarante they both nodded. They both looked a bit embarrassed as I smiled at them.
"Thanks that means a lot. Just seeing as you guys are the only ones I can consider family now." I said "But I gotta ask this and don't get me wrong I appreciate what you did. Amarante how come you got on your dad's case?" I asked
"Because if someone as you showed me such a good time and has been nice enough to tell me about your world. I know you're a nice person. I wouldn't want you to get removed from the ship." Amarante said smiling a little bit. I noticed her emotions keep on showing more and more which makes me happy she's opening up.
"Thanks." I smiled. My gem started blinking its usual bright cyan color. I noticed everyone else started smiling.
"I have to ask, Shawn does your gem have any special powers to make people feel happy when your mood is also good?" Mischa asked
"I believe so. Renton and Eureka mentioned the same thing to me a few days ago." I said, hm is all I heard from Mischa as she wrote something down on a pad of paper. I felt something still on my back. I look behind me and yep they were there, emanating a gentle green glow.
"Still it all feels like a dream. Back in my world I always thought those wings of yours Eureka were stunning and I wouldn't mind having a pair or my girlfriend having a pair. Guess you could say be careful what you wish for you might just get it." I chuckled, I could tell this caused Eureka to blush a little.
"Do you mind if I touch them, your wings?" Mischa asked
"Be my guest, it would be interesting if I had angel wings." I joked, Mischa walked over behind me and laid her palm on one of my wings. I could feel it. It actually felt good for someone to touch them. This was new to me. After a few seconds she stopped and wrote some more things.
"Hey Eureka it is supposed to feel nice when someone touches you wings?" I asked
"Yeah it does. Like when Renton strokes them at night it gives me a very nice feeling." She said
"I can tell. I could fall asleep by someone doing that long enough." I said, I looked over at Amarante. It seemed like she wanted to ask something.
"Yes Amarante?" I asked, "um, I was wondering is this ok?" She extended her hand and pointed at my nose. "You hit the ground pretty hard." She said
"Yeah it hurts a bit but nothing I can't handle for now. Thanks for asking though." I smiled, Mischa looked at Amarante than me. She chuckled which caught my attention.
"Yes Mischa. Mind sharing?" I asked
"Oh it's nothing really. She hasn't shown much interest in anybody until you came on board. Similar to what Eureka did with Renton." Mischa said, This caused Eureka and Renton to blush a bit. I couldn't help but laugh at that. "HEY that's no fair Mischa!" Eureka said, This got me laughing even harder.
"Ah my side….Hurts.. Can't…stop…laughing…." I said, My gem and my forehead went from a blink to a glow and my wings glowed brighter. Mischa went back to jotting down notes in her book then put the papers into a folder with my name on it and filed it away then locked it.
"I'm all done here so you can go ahead and leave when you feel you can." Mischa said as she got up and walked out of the room. The doors opened and I noticed Eureka's three kids outside peeking their heads around. I waved them in they slowly came in. "I'm fine now there's no need to worry." I smiled. That got them to come all the way in. All three of them eyed my wings then me.
"Yes you may. If you're interested you can touch them too Amarante." I said, She looked at me, seemed like she was double checking with me. I nodded my head. I pulled my legs over the edge and fully extended my wings.
"Wow his wings are bigger than mama's wings." Maeter said
"Big wings." Linck said
"Yeah, I like how they glow." Maurice said
"Pretty. I like how they feel, their warm." Amarante said
"Well I'm glad you guys like them I guess having you guys accept them doesn't make it so bad." I said with a nice smile
"How come your wings are bigger?" Maeter asked
"Well I think because I'm a guy therefore I weigh more but I don't think they're done growing yet, but with this size I should be able to fly another person with me when my wings catch trapar waves." I said, the kids stopped rubbing my wings and ran back other to their mama and papa. Amarante sat there next to me just observing.
"So whatcha think about?" I said to Amarante
"I'm just observing all of you. So this is what they call a family." Amarante said
"Well" I pointed to everyone sitting across from me "That's a family. I just sorta dropped in." I chuckled.
"No, you are our family. That is if you want to be." Renton and Eureka said.
"I appreciate it. You guys really don't mind?" I asked again
"Nope. The kids enjoy you. Renton likes hanging out with you and I find you a pleasure to be around since then I'm not the only one with wings around." Eureka said lightly chuckling afterwards
"The Winged Duo, battling Evil in our spare time!" I joked striking a corny pose. Everybody laughed except Amarante who looked puzzled. "It's a joke. It's made to make people laugh." I said, on a late cue she got it and started laughing which just caused all of us to start laughing again.
"Well can someone help me up and take me to where Holland is?" I asked, Amarante scooted over and put her arm around my waist and my right arm over her shoulder. This caught me by surprise but I went with it. I nodded. She lifted while I pushed with my legs. Once we got balanced, we all started walking to where Holland was. I still didn't have all my strength back yet. I noticed something while Amarante was this close to me. She smelled like flowers, I didn't mind it figured it was the smell of shampoo or something of that sort so I thought.
"You ok?" Renton asked startling me out of my stupor.
"Yeah just a little out of it. I'll be fine in a bit." I said
We finally managed to reach where Holland and the crew were. Seemed like they were discussing things, probably about me I thought. "You ready?" Amarante asked. I nodded yes. Renton and Eureka entered first with their kids which got everybody's attention. Amarante and I entered next. Amarante helped me to chair and slowly put me down. She then leaned against the wall. Everyone's eyes we're on me. I could tell they're observing not really me but my wings as they still had a green glow. My gem went back to just blinking slowly every 9 seconds again.
"So, I guess you all found out then." I chuckled. "I suppose I might as well start from the beginning then, but to keep a promise to someone I can't tell you everything yet, in due time I will." I said
They all looked at each other and then back at me and nodded.
"K, first things first, Holland I realize you were trying to cheer me up but I don't appreciate people meddling in my personal affairs. If I need some advice or just someone to talk to I'll usually talk when I'm ready, secondly sorry about the whole thing in the hanger." I said
"I need to apologize. I didn't mean to have you hit face first in the floor. So for that I'm sorry." Holland said. This caused a surprised look to appear on my face but the surprise quickly faded. I just nodded.
"Shall we begin and hold all the questions till the end please." I said. I started out by telling them about my world, the war that was going on (9-11), my wife and family. Then I went into explaining how I wasn't full coralian. I had only a little bit of Coralian in me but slowly I would become half Coralian then three fourths Coralian. I told them about me being able to communicate with Michiko and so on. This took me about 2 hours to explain everything in great detail. After I had finished they just stared at me. Talho was the first to speak.
"Why did those people do that, crashing a plan into that tower?" Talho asked with tears in her eyes
"I don't know I never paid much attention to the news as it is depressing." I said, They all agreed about that.
"So that explains why you acted how you did." Gidget said she said teary eyed. "That's so sad you had to leave your wife like that."
"Well what hurts the most is I wasn't always the best husband. Due to working myself a lot and not being that understanding we had a lot of fights. Just thinking about I wish I would have been more a husband." I said with sad smile
"Why did you fight?" Gidget asked
"Even now I don't know. I guess we sorta grew apart after a while then things just went downhill. Some days were good others bad. The bad days just got more often." I said, Gidget didn't ask anymore questions after that.
"Thank you, Shawn." Holland said. I looked at him with a confused expression.
"For what?" I asked
"That you told us the truth even though you didn't want to." Holland said "You've earned my respect."
I just smiled a bit and bowed my head.
"You can think of us as your family now." Hilda said
"That's a lot of older brother and sisters." I laughed causing everybody to smile
"The more the merrier right?" Renton asked
"Point taken." I smiled
"So technically you already knew all of us in a way didn't you." Hap said
"Basically but I didn't say anything because I wasn't ready too. Plus how do you explain this type of thing but figured after that incident I owed you all an explanation." I said. Hap nodded in agreement.
"You're all right in my book kid. So you're good with numbers, eh?" Hap said (Note: I was an accountant at my job)
"Yep." I said
"I might have you help me from time to time regarding the Gekko Go's Finances." Hap said
"If need be I can help." I said
"Do you like beer?" Hap asked "Yes I do, Hap." I said. He walked over to the fridge and pulled four beers out, tossed one over to Holland, one to Renton and one to me. The woman looked at the men. "What it'd be good to loosen him up." Hap laughed. We all opened up our beer and took a swig.
"Hm, that's the stuff." I said
"Better now?" Hap asked
"More of less." I said. Hap nodded. Woz walked in holding my Ipod.
"I found this in the hanger." Woz said
"That'd be mine." I said, I extended my hand out. Woz gave it to me.
"Interesting device; Being able to store pictures and music on it." Woz said. That caught everybody's attention.
"Pictures?" Stoner said
"Yes stone go ahead and look." I said. Stoner got up and took the device from me. I showed him how to get to my pictures. He started flipping through the pictures with everyone else huddled together trying to see them too. I couldn't help but I chuckle finding them huddled around the table looking at the pictures. I heard them saying things like beautiful, she's pretty, aww, wow and many other things. Stoner looked up at me.
"You're good." Stoner said
"Would you be interested in helping me with Ray=Out sometime." Stoner asked
"Seriously? I never thought I was that good." I said
"These pictures are really good. Which reminds me can I put all of what you said into Ray=Out with a picture of you and Amarante? This would be a perfect piece for it." Stoner said
"Sounds fun. What about you Amarante?" I asked
"I do not mind. What is this Ray out thing?" Amarante asked
"Basically it's a magazine that lifters read but probably due to the second summer of love a lot more people read it to find out the truth about things." I said
"Wow you were serious about that anime thing." Stoner said
"Yeah. It showed a lot of moments between a lot of you or your memories." I grinned.
Right then two other people walked in. I recognized them immediately. The woman had pink hair and wore that pink dress. Anemone and Dominic was the guy. They stopped dead in their tracks and looked at Eureka and Renton then to me. Their eyes widened.
"Holland, who is that?" Dominic asked
"If you two didn't stay up late last night you would know now wouldn't you." Holland winked while Dominic and Anemone's face got red. I couldn't help but laugh that added to their embarrassment.
"Had a little too much fun last night Dominic." I said "I ain't gonna explain how I know your name or Anemone's. I will say that my name's Shawn. Shawn Murphie. Holland can explain the rest." I said
The only response I got was a nod. I could tell they were staring at my wings. Jeez they're not that rare. Eureka has wings too! Maybe not as big as mine but still I thought. Oh well I'll just enjoy the attention. Holland went ahead and explained everything in a very shortened version that took 30 minutes to explain, while I continued chatting with the rest of the crew.
"Do you know how to lift?" Hap asked
"Using Michiko yes, on a board no. I imagine it's the same thing as skateboarding but more balance is needed." I said. Hap had a curious look. "Board that has wheels on it." He gave me this oh type of look.
"We can teach you if you want." Hap said
"I wouldn't mind. I'd need a board though." I said
"We can get that taken care of next time we land." Hap said
"Cool! Much appreciated." I said happily
Holland had finished explaining everything to Anemone and Dominic. They looked back at me with this sympathetic look. "Don't even. I don't need sympathy just be my friends and call it good." I said
"So are you Amarante next partner then." Anemone asked. This caused me to try standing up to protest and ended up falling back and out of the chair. Everyone started laughing, even Amarante started cracking a smile. "Sorry Shawn I couldn't help it." Renton said
"It's cool." I said
"To answer your question Anemone I don't know." I said but in all reality I did I just didn't want to forget my past life and let new feelings into my heart. At least not right now. Expecting me to forget years of one life in days is impossible. I'll just make sure I don't show what I'm thinking on my face anymore.
"Well if you need anything at all just ask us." Anemone said
"I'll keep that in mind." I said "So, If you don't mind me asking did they ever fix those side effects?" I asked
"Side Effects." Anemone said
"From that drug when you were piloting theEND. I will admit it pissed me off that somebody could do that to a person. Well Coralian to be exact but I figured since you and Eureka look like humans I'd consider both of you people, despite your eyes Anemone, Amarante and Your wings Eureka." I said. I noticed eureka and anemone got a little teary eyed. Amarante was looking at the two girls wiping the tears from their eyes. I motioned for Talho to come over then asked "Can you explain to Amarante about tears?" Talho nodded then went over to Amarante and explained what that liquid was.
"Thank You, Shawn." Eureka and Anemone said while everyone made an awww sound. I switched my eyes over to the peanut galley and gave them a look. They all stopped. "Just joking." I winked. "Can't get me that easily unlike Renton over there" I said.
"Why you." Hilda said getting up and marching over here. I just gave a look like oh shit and put my hands "Sorry! Sorry!" I said. She then did something I wasn't expecting. She playfully smacked the side of my face and said "If I didn't have Matthieu I'm sure you would make a fine boy toy." Hilda winked. This caused me to jerk back and the chair hit the back of the wall. "Whoa now. Down woman." I said. Everybody got a riot out of this. She shrugged and walked back over to Matthieu.
"Do you guys mind if I went to the hanger for a bit. Oh and Holland did you get that hammock set up?" I asked
"Oh yeah, I did." Holland said
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it."
"Can someone help me up and out to the hanger?" I asked. Holland started to get up but Amarante had already wrapped her arm around my hip and helped me up. This earned curious looks from everyone.
"This is just thanks for his comment early." Amarante said. I was surprised she didn't blush at all but figured she was just born technically. Amarante helped me to the hanger then into the hammock. It was close enough to Michiko that if I wanted to touch the LFO I could. I rested on my side due to my wings that still hadn't gone away yet. This sorted to worry me a bit but just dismissed it for now. This is comfy. I noticed Amarante had sat down and was leaning her back against the wall.
"You don't need to watch over me. I'll be fine." I said
"I was hoping to talk more. Your stories I enjoy." She said
"I see. Alright." I said
We continued talking until I started getting sleepy and eventually feel asleep as did she. In the background lots of pairs of eyes we're watching us smiling.
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Well I tried adding some conflicts into this chapter along with some humor and a lovely dovey atmosphere. Gotta love the crews curiosity.