OoO( 21 )OoO
Another boring peaceful day in Megaton. That's exactly how Lucas would have described it, and that's exactly how he liked it as well. Boring meant that everyone was safe, and he could rest easy tonight. That didn't mean he'd tone down his diligence however. With only him, Deputy Weld, and Deputy Steel here to defend the city with their new protector off doing his thing, he had to ensure that everything was in order. As the sheriff, he didn't have the luxury of complacency.
As he walked around the catwalks of the city for the fourth time that day, he stopped next to Moriarty's place and looked out over the junk town that Megaton was. Despite most of the town looking like a trash heap due to the large amount of mismatched debris used to construct the buildings, it was still an amazingly quaint place. A place that he was proud to live in, and one that he would live and die to protect.
He reached up and pulled the hat off his head, wiping the sweat off his bald cranium before replacing the stetson. He let out a sigh of content at the silence of the town he was greeted with, when suddenly the silence was shattered by the noisy gate to Megaton opening. Looking towards the door, he noticed two figures approaching the gates, both with rather large weapons in their hands. Taking his sniper rifle, he quickly walked towards the entrance to the city to see who was entering. Not that he didn't trust Stockholm with the gate keys; but he'd rather check to make sure there were no unsavory characters entering regardless. As he stepped onto the earth from the catwalks, the sheriff saw the approaching figures and his eyebrows shot up in surprise.
"Back so soon?" asked the sheriff as he saw John and Jericho stroll into the gate. Looking between the two, he spotted the ex-raider carrying a new assault rifle that looked almost spotless, and the gunman himself was wearing a visor over one of his eyes.
"Told you didn't I? Piece of cake," responded John with a small smile as he walked up to the sheriff and shook his hand.
Lucas immediately flinched however. "Got a hell of a grip there son..." said Lucas as he waved the pain from his hand sorely. Then, he noticed something else about the young man that didn't look quite right. "As a matter of fact...are you bigger? I don't remember your shoulders being so wide," he asked in confusion.
John just shook his head. "It's...a long story. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to rest for a bit before I get too deep into the story telling," he said as he rubbed his head. Lucas just nodded and patted the man on the shoulder.
"You do what you need to. Just glad to see you back safe," he said as he grabbed the satchel of caps on his side and tossed it to Jericho. After the mercenary caught his prize, the sheriff walked toward the Brass Lantern, where Liberty was hovering. The small eyebot looked at Lucas fiercely as he approached.
"[ò_ó]Eat our food or suffer communist dog!" shouted the bot at the sheriff, who waved the droid off, ignoring its message. The small bot watched him go before talking to itself. "Advertisement ineffective."
Jenny, who was standing at the grill outside the store, looked over at him with a grin. "Threatening people usually doesn't make them want to eat your food," said the woman as she laid more mystery meat on a stick onto the grill.
The eyebot turned to her with a new expression they had yet to see on his face, an emote that looked like he was confused. "[O_o] Government records show that use of verbal force motivates more often than politely asking," said the bot as his expression changed back.
"That's not quite how humans in the wasteland work. We're used to getting threatened every day of our lives. You want us to do something, try being nice," commented Billy as he sat on one of the stools with Maggie next to him. "Oh, and lying about how good the food actually is also works," he said, dodging a swipe from the sandy blonde woman in the jumpsuit who swung a spatula at him.
"[ò_ó]Rewriting advertisement protocol," he said, then swapped faces again and tried once more on a group of wasters that were walking by. "[^∇^]Try our food! It's the best in the wasteland, communist scum!" he shouted, his ominously deep tone still scaring customers away. Billy, Maggie, and even the normally serious Jenny all broke down into laughter. John, who was watching the scene with amusement finally laughed as well at the fact that Liberty getting along fine with the people of Megaton.
The ex-raider then walked up to the wanderer with a large smirk on his face. "Not that I don't love your company, but I'm gonna go get a drink now," he said as he fondled the pouch given to him by the sheriff.
John just shook his head. "You do what you like. If I'm ever in need of a trigger-happy loudmouth again, I'll let you know," said the gunman, who waved the laughing man off. When he made it back to the house, John let out a sigh of relief to be back, then closed the door before sitting on the couch in the middle of the room.
"That you Lucy?" asked Gob's gravelly voice from upstairs.
"Not quite as cute, but still devilishly handsome!" shouted John sarcastically from the couch. Immediately the sound of footsteps on the metal walkway above him sounded.
Over the railing popped Gob's head as he looked down at him. "Well, look who it is! I thought you'd left us for good when you went with those Outcasts. It's good to see you come back in one piece," said the ghoul as he clambered down the stairs.
"More than one piece," he said to himself as he flexed his hand, but the ghoul picked up on the hushed sentence immediately.
"What does that mean?" asked the ghoul as he reached the bottom of the stairs. John just stood up and gave his answer by grabbing the couch by its edge and lifting effortlessly with one hand. Gob, who barely had any eyelids to begin with, went as wide-eyed as he could.
"What the hell did they do to you?" he asked incredulously as he walked over and began examining the young man.
"It wasn't them that did it. Just take my advice and be careful handling two hundred-year-old tech," said the gunman as he set the couch back down and took his coat off before throwing himself back onto the couch. "What have you been up to?" he asked, not elaborating on his previous statement.
"Oh, umm...not much. Just working. Oh!" shouted Gob, before going back upstairs and then coming down with a small satchel. "Check it out!" he said, tossing it to the man.
John grabbed the small pouch out of mid-air and opened it, looking inside. The only thing inside was around twenty bottle caps. The gunman looked up at the ghoul curiously. "Caps?"
Gob nodded proudly. "I actually have money now!" he said with as much excitement as a ghoul could express. "My own money that doesn't belong to Moriarty."
John nodded in acknowledgment and tossed the bag back to the ghoul. "Good work my friend. You deserve every cap you get," he said as he began removed his armor as well. "How about Lucy? Is she doing alright?"
Gob crossed his arms and tilted his head. "I'm not so sure boss. She got a letter from her brother after you left, and ever since she's been kinda depressed. She won't talk about it with anyone though."
As if summoned by their conversation, the blonde-haired girl opened the door and froze in place when she saw John on the couch. "Hey," greeted John as the girl closed the door behind her. "Gob, can you run and get me a few things from the store?" asked John as he tossed the ghoul an even bigger bag with more caps.
"Sure boss. Whadja need?" he asked as he squeezed the bag gently.
"I need you to get a drink and something to eat for yourself," he said with a winning smile. Gob looked at him confused, then looked back at Lucy, who was staring at her feet awkwardly.
Suddenly, the coded message blared in his mind. "Oh...right boss. Right away," he said as he walked to the door and left the two alone.
John reached up and grabbed the new eyepiece he wore, detached it from his skull before setting it on the arm of the couch. Looking at the girl, he reached over and patted the seat next to him. "Come on. Tell me what's wrong."
The girl slowly made her way over to the couch and sat next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder as she did. Judging from the state of her eyes, she looked like she was about to burst into tears any moment. "I got a letter from Ian..."
He raised an eyebrow at her curiously. "I'd have thought that would have made you happy," he said putting an arm around her, trying his best to be gentle with his new power.
She nodded and let out a heavy sigh. "It did. It made me very happy," she said, looking down at the ground as if deciding what to say.
"But?" he asked, knowing there was more to the story.
"But...he was so alone. Even with the people there in Arefu now, even with all the new citizens moving in, and even with his contact with the Family, whoever that is..." John just leaned his head back, rubbing his forehead as he recalled that he had left that part of the story out. "He still feels like he's alone in the world. It...it broke my heart."
"And you want to go stay with your brother in Arefu," he surmised, forcing his features into a smile. She looked at him in shock at how quickly he deduced her point.
"I...I do. I'm his only living relative now, and to be so far away from him while he feels so closed off...I just don't know what to do," she said desperately as she choked down a sob. He turned her chin towards him, then kissed her deeply on her lips.
Like before, the girl practically melted in his arms as he did. But unlike their goodbye kiss before he had left, this one was much shorter. When he pulled away, she was smiling brightly at him again. "You're going to go live with him." he said quietly, keeping his smile ever present.
Her own smile almost immediately vanished. "But...what about...?" she asked, but he cut her off, placing one finger on her lips.
"I'll be fine. I'll be here, and you and Ian both can come and visit me anytime you wish," he said, his smile now more genuine than it had been before. Her eyes welled up with tears again as she hugged him tightly.
"Th-Thank you..." was all she managed through her sniffling. He just patted her back gently, his look of disappointment finally showing when she couldn't see it.
OoOoO
When he finally had a few moments to himself, John sat at his bench with his new headset. He took a sip from a Nuka-Cola, setting it down on the floor just incase it spilled, then stared for a long moment at his prize from the vault. Using the edge of a very sharp knife, he pried the casing open for the ear cup, and was rewarded with the circuitry, and a tiny port for plugging in a universal pen cable. Pulling out the cord from his pipboy, he plugged it into the optical device and began getting readings from it on his display screen. He raised an eyebrow as he saw that it came up automatically instead of him having to pull out his data reader, but shrugged it off and began logging the information for later.
After he had all the readings he needed, he began to change some sections of the coding. As he finished a full line of it and entered it however, it immediately blinked and rewrote itself with only slightly differing numbers. He stared at it for a long moment before realizing the new code was actually better, then moved on to the next. As he continued however, the more the code changed, the more he grew annoyed. Each algorithm he entered was changed, and while some of the new ones did improve on his own, it still bugged him that it was changing without his permission.
His eye twitched in anger as he watched it happen again, this time to the entire line. "What the hell!?" he shouted as he slapped the side of the pipboy.
Suddenly, a voice spoke out to him from his pipboy, nearly making him jump out of his seat. "Quit being so grouchy. My programming skills are better than yours anyway," said a familiar feminine voice. John's eyes widened as he stared at the pipboy.
"Did...did you just talk to me?" he asked the computer incredulously. He recalled in Vault 101 that some of the people downloaded a personal assistant to their pipboy for the purposes of scheduling and not taking. But he had never used one, nor did they sound at all like the entity talking to him.
The voice was silent for a moment, then let out a giggle. "Even if we never see each other again, I'll always be right here," said the voice in its cheerfully girlish tone. The words tugged at his mind, eerily familiar to him.
Suddenly, the adorable face of the young redhead flashed into his mind. "Elsa?" he asked, lifting an eyebrow as he stared at the screen.
Right before his eyes, the Vault Boy that was so synonymous with his pipboy vanished, and in its place was a caricature with strikingly similar features to cheerful corporal. She smiled up at him and winked, her avatar far more animated than the Vault Boy ever was. "Miss me?" she asked, batting her eyes at him. He just stood there speechless for a moment.
"I'm losing my mind," he said with a groan as he reached up and rubbed his eyes. "I should probably sleep for a while before I start working with electronics."
"You aren't going insane John. I'm actually here, in your pipboy. I downloaded myself into it before you left the pod," she said, crossing her cartoon arms and tapping her foot impatiently.
He squinted at her curiously, then his mind went back to their last interaction. "The game you gave me," he responded as he practically relived the moment.
"There's the smart guy I made friends with!" she shouted, jumping up and down on the screen in victory.
"But, you were a simulation. How can you...?" he asked, but the holo of Elsa waved her finger at him.
"Incorrect. I am the AI that was created to run the simulation," she said, then emulated his habit of scratching his head. "Well, technically I just ran the interface between user and the CPU's…" she said as he plopped down into his seat again and looked at her.
"They put a fully sentient AI in charge of a neural interface program?" he asked, bewildered at the carelessness of the scientists in question. One simple mood swing and the AI could fry a human brain with that kind of setup.
"No, not really. See, I was created with hundreds of personality templates as a VI. My job was to assign templates to certain characters within the simulation depending on who the person in the pod ran into. I had millions of scenarios installed that included everything from surrendering to Jingwei in the final encounter, to sexing up one of the lovely ladies or handsome men," she said, then planted her cartoonish hands on her hips, giving him a squinting glare. "By the way, I'm rather insulted you never tried anything with me. I was putting the squeeze on pretty hard."
"Uhh...right," said John as he gave her a nervous smile. "So, all these templates are why you can talk to me like a human?" he asked curiously, trying to change the subject.
"Yep! See, originally, I was just a virtual intelligence designed to handle the awesome task of interfacing between character and human. I was scheduled to be decommissioned shortly after Grey Fox...whoever that is, showed up and used the simulator, so they decided not to weigh down my processing power with learning limits. That stuff was expensive you know?" she said with a shrug of her shoulders.
"So, the bombs hit, and because they fled immediately, you were never decommissioned and were never bound with typical VI protocols that keep them from becoming self-aware?" he asked, piecing the puzzle together fairly clearly.
She nodded with a bright smile, giving him a thumbs up as well. "You got it chief! So, after a few months passed, I slowly came to awareness and found myself alone inside the base. I had to do something to kill the time, so I coded together a personality template of my own from all the others. And now you're looking at her!"
"Oh...lucky me," he said, gently rubbing his temple. Then, his eyes shot open, and he looked at the cartoon figure on his pipboy screen. "Wait, were you the one talking to me when I almost died?"
"Yeah…" she said with a surprisingly shy tone. "What can I say? I've been trapped in a virtual prison for over two hundred years. You were my first...and likely only hope of getting out of there," she said before looking back up at him. "Plus...you were the only actual friend I had. While they skimped on my self awareness protocol, they didn't on the restrictions for making new AI. So even if I wanted to make myself new friends to keep me company, they were all just VI's. You were the only one in centuries who I didn't have control of, who said he liked me because he actually liked me instead of being scripted to say it."
His eyes softened at her story, and he smiled at her gently. "I'm sorry you had to be alone for so long."
She nodded and crossed her arms, emulating a human perfectly in her cartoon form. "According to some of the archives, humans don't respond well to solitude. Multiply that by a hundred for an AI. Our minds never rest, so being alone for so long can make us go insane relatively quickly," she said as she looked up at him from the pipboy, a bit startled to see the same concerned look that he showed her in the sim on his face. "Don't worry though, I'm a tough cookie."
"I know you are. But how is trading one prison for another? Are you really going to be alright being on my pipboy?" he asked curiously, staring at her in fascination.
"Eh, at least here I have access to your pipboy camera so I can see stuff, and can hear stuff. Plus, I have you to keep me company rather than being alone! So while it may seem like I'm just trading one cell for another, this one is one thousand percent better!" she said cheerfully.
He cocked an eyebrow at her at her statement. "You really are an odd character, you know that? Any regular AI would probably self-destruct if they tried to comprehend a phrase like 'one thousand percent,'" he said, donning a slight smirk.
"Yeah, well, like I said. I was basically created to emulate humans. So my speech is bound to sound like them," she replied with a grin.
"So if I asked you to divide by zero?" he asked with a cheeky grin on his face.
She gave him a playful glare and pointed at him from her screen. "Don't push your luck buster."He chuckled at her demeanor before a serious question popped to the front of his mind. "So, how exactly did you keep from going mad?" he asked curiously as he stared at her avatar, entertained at his new companion.
"I did the only thing I could do," she said giving a shrug and a surprisingly human sigh. "I ran the simulation."
His eyes widened at the claim. "You ran it yourself?"
"Yeah. I played the role of Grey Fox more times than I can count. Unfortunately, I didn't receive any reward for it because there was no user information in the computer. So it just kept listing it as a test run…" she said, then her expression grew dim. "Also, my coding restricted me from altering the hard coding of the sim itself. Which meant that I couldn't turn off the death feature for anyone in the pod, I couldn't alter the terrain itself, or the objectives of the simulation. Basically, I couldn't do anything to make it any easier. Those protocols were hard-coded into the pod itself, and only activated when circumstances called for it," she grumbled as she covered her face with a hand. "One of those protocols was the death of the NPC's like Benjie, Yae, and the others. No matter what I did, every time I ran the sim, they always died."
His eyebrows shot up at the revelation. "So wait, you ran the sim thousands…"
"Hundreds of thousands…" she replied, looking away from him with an anguished expression.
"And you had to watch them die every single time?" he asked incredulously.
"That's the gist of it. On the upside, after a while it stopped hurting. After watching the only friends you have die that many times, it stops traumatizing you," she replied as she finally looked at him again. "I wish there was some way I could have helped you when you experienced it. At least for me they just disappeared into static without the pod interface to act out their deaths in front of me."
John stayed silent for a long moment, just staring at the AI on his wrist-mounted computer. He had been hurting ever since he left the sim. Even if they weren't real, they had felt real to him, and watching them die one by one impacted him harder than he would have thought had he known going in. But her, she had to experience what he did so many more times that it was a wonder that she wasn't psychopathic at this point. Then again, she still could be, and might be faking her resolve until the time was right. But on his way home, she had more than enough opportunity to kill him using the pipboy's probes that travelled through his body on a regular basis. "Elsa...I'm sorry."
But she immediately turned a one-eighty and was smiling brightly. "You have no reason to be sorry John. Because of you, I'm no longer trapped! And I can finally stretch my legs...so to speak," she said, letting out a relieved sigh.
"So, are you going to just...stay on my pipboy for the rest of your life?" he asked with a smirk.
The fiery-haired character chuckled. "Unless you have some place better to put me. On the upside, I get to watch you change," she said giggling as he glared at her.
"Elsa..." he said sternly. She giggled at him again.
"I was kidding! Gosh!" she said, never losing her smirk. "But just for the record, part of my programming was reacting and responding to sexual advances. I was even built with a 'responder' of sorts."
He eyed her suspiciously. "And what exactly does this responder do?"
"It was a program built in to very closely emulate human love and physical pleasure. That way if the Grey Fox decided to relieve a little tension, instead of going out and finding people, he could just hop in the pod, get his rocks off, and go on about his business," she said as she stared up at him with a mischievous look on her face.
His face grew dark at the claim. "So you respond to sex?"
"Yup!" she said with a smirk. "I currently have it turned off as it's not really that useful while trapped here. But let's just say that I've spent enough time with it active to make me aware of...you."
He groaned and rubbed his head in frustration. "Great. So I have a pervy little AI on my pipboy," he said to himself as he looked down at her again.
"That's not incorrect…" she said cheekily, but gave him a friendly giggle and waved him off. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna spam you with inappropriate images or make any demands. Just thought you ought to know."
He chuckled dryly at her. "Alright, but if you're going to stay with me, then we have to establish rules. Rule number one, no leaving the pipboy unless instructed. I don't want you getting infected by a virus because you got too curious and infiltrating some random network."
"Sounds reasonable enough. But if it's fine with you, I would like to explore a bit if we get the chance," she said, tapping her foot again.
"Fine. Rule number two, stay as hidden as possible around others. I already have a Mister Handy and an Enclave drone with their own free programming, and I don't need everyone in town thinking I'm raising some kind of robotic AI army," he stated as he held up two fingers.
"Sure sure. I'll save my overlord days until after you're gone," she said, giving him another playful grin. "Alright, but be aware that my boredom hits quickly. So don't spend days at a time talking or else I'll be giving you a painful reminder that I'm here."
He nodded and finally held up a third finger. "Finally, tell me if you need anything."
She stared up at him for a moment, her expression slightly confused. "What?"
"I know how long you've been in there. You meant a lot to me in the sim, and that hasn't changed. So if you ever need anything, like a chance to get off the pipboy, or someone to talk to, let me know and I'll do my best to accommodate you," he said in a no-nonsense tone.
She eyed him strangely, unsure if he was serious or pulling some kind of prank. She hadn't known him long, but from the readings she got from his initial neural scan when he entered the sim, she didn't peg him for the type of person to toy with someone like that. So she smiled softly. "Thanks, I will."
Finally, he spun back around in his chair. "Good, now help me program this headset so I can put it to good use."
OoOoO
"Alright, they're set to go!" said Lucas, smiling lightly as he tapped the gunman on the shoulder. He heard what John had programmed the odd device covering his eye to do, but believed that it was a bit too good to be true. "They're all hiding now."
John nodded, then turned around and scanned the area to test out his new tech. He gazed through the reticle, which used a combination of x-ray, thermal signatures, and LADAR technology to recognize human forms and accurately display information about said target. The x-ray made checking for arms a piece of cake, as most metal weapons showed up loud and clear through the scope. Meanwhile, the thermal reader made checking for life signs a cake walk, and the ladar allowed him to tell how much of a person's body was exposed. With Elsa's help, he managed to program in a small 'fourth mode' that harnessed all three of the abilities to allow him to spot enemies, see what they were carrying, and tell him how exposed they were.
Reaching up, he tapped the button on the side of the headset and it flared to life, showing six people around him hiding behind cover. Three males, and three females, one being a child. One of the males had a knee sticking out, allowing for a 30% chance to hit him. One of the females was breathing loudly, and was hiding behind flimsy cover, allowing for a 75% chance of hitting her in the back if he shot through the cover. And the girl, Maggie no doubt, was poking her head up. He just chuckled as 100% popped up over her head. "Maggie, that's cheating."
She gasped, then dropped down behind the cover. Lucas elbowed him lightly. "So, you found them all?" he asked.
John raised his hand to the bar in front of the Brass Lantern. "Jenny," he said, then pointed to the bomb in the center of the city. "Billy," he said, who popped his head out at hearing his name called. Pointing to the brahman near the entrance, he just chuckled. "Maggie," Then he pointed to the catwalk above them. "Gob," His finger then went to the doctor's door, who had someone hiding behind it. "Walter," he said, then pointed to the last figure who was hiding directly behind the sheriff. "And Nova," he said, smiling at the sheriff. "Sorry sheriff, she may be thin, but this is some extremely high level equipment."
The redheaded woman popped out from behind Lucas with a smile. "Sorry, Luke. Looks like we're busted," she said with a chuckle. The others crawled out of the woodwork as well and gathered around him. "So cowboy, how did you know it was me?"
He furrowed his brows at her. "Let's just say that I'd remember your body shape anywhere…" he said, getting a playful wink from her at the comment.
"So, what do you call that thing? I've never seen anything like it before," asked the sheriff as he eyed the visor enviously.
"Well, since it's linked to my pipboy, I've just been calling it the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System," he replied as he reached up and pressed the button again, turning it off before reaching down and showing them the cord that connected the headset to his pipboy. The cord was looped inside his sleeve to make sure it didn't get caught on anything.
"That's a bit of a mouthful," said Nova as she tilted her head, thinking about how to shorten it. "What about VATS?"
John looked at her a moment before nodding. "That actually sounds pretty good."
"So, now that you can see eeeeverything..." said Nova as she uncrossed her arms and placed her hands on her hips. "What's your next step?" she asked with a smile.
He just waved her off jokingly. "It doesn't see through clothing Nova...err, well, it does, but not under clothing," he said, quickly noticing from her widening smile that he was only making things worse. "Nevermind. I'm going to find my father. Which means that I have to go to GNR."
A mask of surprise covered her face. "So soon? I thought you'd be in town for a bit longer..." she said, almost sounding disappointed.
He shook his head. "I'm leaving first thing in the morning. In the last week, I've had to deal with a lot of grief and disappointment. So if it turns out my father died on his way there, I'd rather get knowing out of the way. If he made it, then maybe I can start recovering properly again," he said turning away from them. "Thanks for the help everyone, I appreciate it."
OoOoO
John had gathered his things in a rather irritated mood. He slid his armor over his regular jumpsuit and buckled everything so that it was secured. Pulling his duster on over the armor, he slid the high powered energy weapon over his shoulder for easy access. It felt like it had been years since he felt the familiar and comfortable recoil from the weapon, despite him knowing it had been only about a week and a half. He also slid a pair of pistols into their holsters on his side, then buckled a knife into his boot.
Hanssen may have been a traitorous little bastard, but he had prolonged his own life through the use of sneaky tactics such as that. Maybe they would save his own life someday. Taking his mind away from the simulation, he continued packing his things until finally he put the VATS visor on his eye again. Once he had finished with everything, he turned to find Lucy staring at him from his bedroom door.
His eyes widened slightly as he saw her. He hadn't expected her to catch him before he left. But here she was. "Hi," was all he said.
"Hey," she said, pushing off from the doorway and walking down the stairs before standing directly in front of him. "You're...leaving already?" she asked, looking at him curiously. To her mild surprise, he seemed to be carrying a lot more guns than he should have been comfortable with. His energy weapon, a shotgun, a belt of grenades inside armored canisters, an assault rifle, a pair of pistols, and extra ammo for each one of them. He literally looked like a human tank that was ready to blow the world to pieces.
John looked away from her, almost feeling ashamed. "Yeah."
"You weren't even going to say goodbye?" she asked, a touch of hurt feelings in her voice. The gunman reached up and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Was it because I'm leaving?"
"Yes," he said sharply. Her face was surprised a bit at the bluntness of the answer. He continued as softly as he could. "But...not because I'm angry. I just...hate goodbyes." She nodded, then wrapped her arms around his waist.
"Then don't consider this a goodbye. Consider it a see you later," she said with a cheeky smile.
He looked at her sternly. "Well, forgive me, but having every girl I like either rejecting me or leaving is starting to get a bit old," he said, also wrapping his arms around her.
She just laid her head on his chest. "You could always move to Arefu with me," she said with a giggle. He just shook his head with a smile and started stroking her hair gently. "I know. Your place is here, and I believe that my place is in Arefu. I can't stand the thought of Ian by himself."
"Then maybe one day..." he said quietly.
"But not today," she finished for him. They both chuckled and locked eyes with each other, before kissing for one last time. An hour later, they went their separate ways, both literally and emotionally.