Sapphire eyes bore into the grey behemoth who stood precarious and off-guard in his own room. Storm attempted to fathom how a girl half his size could make him feel an inch high, but the glaring mechanic sitting on his bed halted any thought that dared cross his mind. Petrified like a statue, the massive boy stared at Wave, furiously staring him down.
"Welcome back, Storm. How was your day off?" she asked, venomous sarcasm on full display. Storm's tongue flopped in his mouth like a fish gasping for water as he tried to form a sentence. But all he could manage to get out was quiet stammering.
"You dirty, lying sack of CRAP!" shouted Wave without warning, making the large albatross jump backwards. "This is what you've been doing?! Playing hookie?!"
"N-n-n-now Wa-wa-wa- Wave. This ain't-ain't-ain't what it loo-"
"SHUT YOUR TRAP, YOU INCONSIDERATE TROGLODYTE!" the heliotrope girl shouted, cutting Storm off and filling him with fear. She flung an angry finger into Storm's face before she continued.
"You good for nothing brickhead! I know exactly what you've been doing! You got the brilliant idea to skip class and you didn't think I would find out! Well, guess what?!" she asked. Storm inhaled to answer her before the furious swallow pulled out a giant wrench and slammed it on the floor, denting Storm's metal floor.
"I'm 30-no, 50 times smarter than YOU! I can find out anything you do, you ignorant gray blob!" Wave spat, jabbing her finger into Storm's forehead to accent her point. Up until that point, Storm was scared and anxious. But the pressure of her action forced those emotions back and brought a little anger bubbling in his chest, which was the fire he needed to find his voice again.
"Aw, who cares how smart ya are?! Ya don't know what I wuz doin', so jus' lemme explain!" he stood to his full height to get her to back down. Unfortunately, it didn't work.
"Let you explain?! Explain how you wanted to spend an entire two days slacking off?!" she accused, pointing out the window he'd just come back in. "Yeah, go ahead and explain all the heavy things you picked up and put back down or all the people you decided to let smash that rockhead of yours in to prove how tough you are-!"
"Do ya actually want me ta explain or do ya jus' wanna make fun o' me?!" Storm flippantly responded.
"You've been ancestors-knows-where all day and you're gonna try to turn this around on ME!? You are at fault here! Not me!"
"Gods, look at ya, Wave! Why does anybody have ta be da bad guy here?!" the robust avian turned his back on the screaming girl and leaned against his windows. "I jus' needed some space!"
"For 2 days!?"
"I wasn't gone fo' no 2 days!" he spun back around in exasperation. "I only went out tonight 'n it wuz only fo' a few hours!"
"And you didn't feel the need to TELL ANYBODY where you were going?!"
"I- I-I-!" the large teenager stammered, darting his eyes across the room, literally searching for an answer. But none came, he had to admit he didn't think about that. It was a gut move, he wasn't really planning anything, it just sort of happened in that moment. Storm supposed that was strange and she kinda had a point. "Well, no I- I didn't think it wuz-"
"That's EXACTLY the problem! You don't think! And you're punishing me for making you think!"
"Wh-Wh-WHAT?!"
"Don't play innocent with me, you overgrown manchild!"
"Whaddya talkin' 'bout, ya nut case!? How is dis about you?!"
"How is it NOT about me?! You don't like learning about Gear and you don't like me so you decided to skip the whole thing and do whatever it is idiots like you do when you get a da-"
"HEY! Don't call me names, ya stuckup windbag! Ya don't know nothin'!" he shouted, his anger taking complete control.
"What's to know!? You didn't like me actually trying to teach you, which by the way, was YOUR IDEA IN THE FIRST PLACE!"
"Well dat's jus' great! Yer puttin' words in my mouth 'n overreactin', as usual! Perfect! Dat's jus' what I need!"
"What do you mean as usual?!"
"Yer da smartypants, figure it out!"
"What do you mean, Storm!? I DON'T overreact!"
"YER OVERREACTIN' RIGHT NOW, YA JERK!"
"How DARE you!"
"How dare YOU! I can't get a word in-!"
"That's mature, that's real matu-!"
"Yer jus' a know-it-all, selfish-!"
"Ha! I'M SELFISH?! Who's the one that just came back from doing whatever he wanted and didn't tell anybody-!"
"I thought it would be fine-!"
"What a surprise?! Look who's wrong AGAIN!"
"What is yer deal, Wave?!"
"What's my-?! UGGGGHHHH!" shrieked the purple feathered girl. She buried her face in her hands as she turned to leave. "I can't BELIEVE I was worried about you, you ingrate!"
"Well I..." he readied another insult but the words collapsed in his throat at the strange sentence. "Wait, what'd you jus' say?" as soon as he asked the question, he felt the familiar heat of his sickness rumbling in his stomach.
"I said you're an ungrateful, musclebound, idiotic-!" Wave started but Storm couldn't let her finish her string of names.
"Were ya... were ya really worried... about me?" he asked again, soft and genuine. And Wave inhaled sharply, no doubt wanting to finish yelling at him, but he could see hints of a blush rising to her cheeks. Before he could confirm what he thought he saw, she turned to his dresser and threw a bag into his face.
The gray behemoth was blinded by the projectile for a second and as he lifted his hands to free his eyes, he heard the unmistakable sound of pills shaking in a container. As the bag fell innocently from his face into his waiting hands, he could make out some writing on the plastic. It was from a pharmacy, one he wasn't familiar with. A sudden clatter brought his attention back toward the fuming Wave, who had just slammed a platter of food on his floor.
"OF COURSE I WAS WORRIED ABOUT YOU, YOU BIG IDIOT!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. Storm's sheepish gaze trailed up her sultry legs, over her lean midriff, past her breasts that nestled her ruby necklace and finally to her irritated, yet flustered face. "YOUR LESSONS ARE IMPORTANT TO ME!" she screamed before marching out of his room and slamming his door with a booming crash.
Storm stared at his door for a moment, still trying to catch up to everything that happened. But an offensive smell caused him to look down at the mess Wave had made. Curiously, he leaned down carefully and studied the meal.
He couldn't believe his eyes, it was an authentic Babylonian remedy. He remembered his mother used to make it for him when he got sick, which barely happened, but when it did, this was what she force fed him. Mashed potatoes cooked in sage oil were smeared on his floor, crushed almonds sprinkled in for good measure. Lopsided lemon slices were stuck in the potatoes and some had soaked into the ginger beer and mouthwash mixture.
It smelled terrible, but it took him back in time to when he was just a little boy, laying in his bed next to his mother as she tended to him. It was a pleasant memory that he had almost forgotten, but thanks to the putrid smell he could be transported back there just as clear as day. And as Storm scooped up the mess with his large hands, he couldn't help but think about how badly Wave worried for him.
For her to go out of her way and make all of this for him, HER, the worst cook he'd ever seen. He was sure she mentioned one time that she would rather die than cook for herself again. And it wasn't just that, he was aware of what they had in the kitchen, and there wasn't any potatoes or almonds or lemons. And if he was smelling the odd collection of ingredients, they were fresh out of sage oil too. Plus, he had drunk all the ginger beer a couple days ago, so... where did all of this even come from?
"Did she... did she go out... and buy all o' dis stuff? Fo' me..?" he asked himself, sitting on his bed as he tried wrapping his mind around the idea. Wave, Ms. Diva herself, went out and bought (or stole, rather) all of this stuff, and the medicine, AND cooked it, AND brought it to his room. Why would she do such a selfless thing? Why would she go out of her way to do anything for him at all? What was going on?
Storm flopped on his back and groaned in confusion. But he soon realized an important detail. Before Wave left, when she said the lessons were important to her, was she... blushing? She was, he recalled. It all happened so fast and he couldn't be sure, but perhaps she was blushing a little. A familiar pit opened up in his chest in response.
"She... she was startin' ta think we wuz friends..." he breathed, wincing at the guilt pounding his heart at the now vivid image of Wave's hurt expression before slamming his door. Storm sat back up, staring at the once sanitary food that he placed on his dresser. Without much thought, he was up and shoveling it into his mouth with two massive fingers. But much to his dismay, the grotesque remedy didn't take away the ache in his chest, nor the fuzzy heat prickling in his stomach.
It felt weird to know that Wave was starting to think enough about him to do what she did, but to also be hurt by his absence and rail on him the instant he got back. Storm was experiencing both the strange illness that he felt around her and the familiar sensation of guilt.
"I messed up bad..."
I forgot to mention where Wave went specifically when she got the medicine and ingredients for the home remedy! My bad! The Babylon Cloud was flying across the Mediterranean Sea (rather the Sonic series equivalent to the Mediterranean Sea), which isn't too far from Apotos, a country based off of Santorini, Greece. So since Storm headed to Apotos and Wave headed in the opposite direction, she went toward a tiny city called Kaş, Turkey. Now this can get a bit tricky because there are multiple Kaş around Turkey. So to make it easy, I just picked the Kaş on the coast line. Sure enough, Kaş has several grocery stores, including at least one supermarket, and a pharmacy or two. So that's where she was, the Sonic series's equivalent to Kaş, Turkey. Oh and the Babylon Cloud was around Symi, Simi, Greece (or at least the equivalent to that location in the Sonic series.)
Interestingly enough, Wave had to travel approximately 103 miles to her destination while Storm had to travel approximately 130 to his. Their numbers are just anagrams of each other, I thought that was interesting. It probably isn't. Okay see ya next time XDDD