Chapter XXVIII — Chrysalis

After killing a bit of time slouched against the wall right by the rec room door — and practically channeling cliché solo artist album covers everywhere — I nearly had a heart attack when I heard a loud 'whap' noise. Then three more instances of said noise in rapid succession.

Luckily for me, the indignant yelp that escaped my lips had been largely missed by a few choice curse words echoing out in the portion of the hallway I could not see. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure that Allison would have laughed at me for the next few days for getting spooked over her one-sided pillow fight with the wall. When I saw her shadowy-slash-newly lumpy figure appear into the dim light of this section of the corridor, I put two and two together and figured out why a few muffled 'fucks' and 'shits' were mouthed.

Not only was she carrying an obscene amount of pillows – this wasn't even including the ones she lobbed at the wall in defeat- and blankets, she had not one but two duffel bags looped around her neck. Twisted around her neck in a way that I wasn't quite sure if it was cutting off her air supply or just messing with her balance, actually.

I quickly bounded over to her to take the bags before she fell over.

"Do I dare ask why you were trying to kill yourself trying to bring all of this stuff in one trip?" I said, waving around the stuffed-to-the-brim bags in either arm.

"To be honest," she began between breaths, "I've had my fill of going up stairs to last me a lifetime or at least a week – my legs are going to turn into jelly real soon. Also, I stand by the common belief that two trips are for the weak. And if all else failed, I would have had a mountain of pillows to cushion my fall."

"Can't argue with that." I shrugged. "What's in the bags? Food, clothes, random objects to bludgeon people with?"

"Yes, yes and only if you can get really creative with the extra travel-size toiletries and shower poofs I stuffed in there." she wryly answered. "After briefly discussing things with your father, we decided that it would be best to relegate you to the downstairs with the door locked at all times until further notice. Easier to find you that way, not to mention easier to keep you safe with the heavy-duty locking mechanism on the door. Also-"

Allison unceremoniously dropped all blankets and pillows within grasp to reach into her back pockets to fish out a few small items out of them to present to me in either hand as if they were some kind of game show prizes.

"-Slider phone with keyboard or touch screen smart phone?"

"Um. Slider phone." I answered. "I don't think I'd do well with a touch screen – I can imagine the absurd level of non-sense that'd be in my would-be texts already. And I'm pretty sure you've had your fill of that just talking to me and my father so yeah…I think giving me the slider phone would be best for our collective sanity."

"Fair enough, seeing as you last had a phone when flip phones were in style." she chuckled, handing me the phone I picked. "Anyway, since your father and I wanted to leave your options open, we just put the contact for both phones as ARS. Your father is the other contact in the phone. The instructions and password for the basement lock will be texted to you when I get upstairs. Obviously it goes without saying that you two are not to go upstairs unless if it's absolutely necessary. If either of you want something, text either of us and we'll bring it down to you. Got all that?"

I nodded.

"Awesome. Ok, before I head back up, the lavender duffel is yours and the grey one is for Squall. There's not much difference other than the kind of clothes and underwear I put in them and the extra toiletries and I put in yours. Both have some packaged food, re-sealable water bottles, hairbrushes, pens and small bottles of ibuprofen and acetaminophen. I also stuck some books in there to keep you entertained. Is there anything else you think you two need?"

"No, I think we're covered." I told her, stuffing the phone in the side compartment of the lavender duffel. I mean, if I get terribly bored, I could always resort to cross-dressing Squall for my own amusement. Then a snicker escaped in spite of myself and Allison's lips quirked upwards into a smile.

Oh god, it's starting and there weren't even any puns involved in this. I am doomed if she doesn't leave soon.

"Ok." She went back to collect a good part of the pillows and blankets strewn around the corridor. I slung both bags over my right shoulder and followed suit with the nearby items. "Where did you want these?"

"In the rec room." I said. "Squall decided to take up every square inch of space of the bed while we were talking and basically made up my mind for me."

Allison's smirk widened before she went ahead of me into the room - I was one step behind her, literally speaking. "He must have been tired. I've never see him be anything but pin needle-straight when he was asleep. Did you try punching him to prove your theory?"

"Sadly, I couldn't justify the risk of the inevitable death wish I'd get if my hypothesis didn't pan out. Science will just have to wait."

"It's probably for the better." she added as she deposited all the blankets and stuff on the second couch against the right-hand wall. "Speaking of waiting, you'll have to tell me about the sentient gay robot thing tomorrow."

"There's not much to tell, actually." I placed the bags on the coffee table and busied myself by making my sofa bed on the first couch. "Basically we deduced that it wasn't a good idea to keep up the telepathy in front of my father because he probably doesn't think of Squall as a sentient gay robot. Because you know, being a sentient robot's not enough."

"No, it is not." she agreed before we had both turned around from blanket placing. "So, I will see you post-sleep. You don't have to set an alarm, I'll come and wake you myself when I want to do the tests. And if you're a good little sentient robot, I'll even bring you a vat of coffee of your own."

"Nurse Allison Bear's order does compute." I replied, accompanied with an apropos stone face for like, two seconds. "Sentient robot R-I-N-O-A will comply for said unit of caffeinated beverage."

Allison shook her head. "Ok, I'm going before your AI turns on me when it decides that every human being needs to be restrained for their own good. Power down and go into sleep mode, ok?"

Now it was my turn to shake my head as I continued to sport the most un-robotic face ever. The joke was deader than dead and I complied like the good little non-robot I was, cocooning myself in layers of blanket after saying a quiet good night.

When the lights were turned off and the door was shut, I wrapped the blankets a little more tightly.

-—-

I wish I could say that I woke up a handful of uneventful hours later, jonesing for some coffee because it was still too damn early to be up and being prodded at by Allison.

No, I was still in my blanket burrito still trying to get to that endgame – currently, I'm just faking the step where I would be sleeping for no other reason than to buy myself some time.

I wasn't in any danger or anything but…to borrow a phrase from an old pop song, I was torn. This is how I felt.

About, say, two-ish hours after Allison had left, the door slowly opened again. By then I had only reached that early stage of sleep where you're so close to getting the long patches of unconsciousness minus the jolts waking you up because you weren't fighting it. Of course, it wasn't the sound kind of sleep yet so I woke up with my eyes kept shut and waited for aural clues as to who this was. The cellphone Allison gave me didn't ding to inform me that I had a text telling me to hide in a dryer drum or something so I wasn't really expecting the worst yet.

It was only after hearing him cut himself off mid curse – presumably for hitting the table with his shin or stepping on something – that I knew who'd entered the room. A few blankets and pillows hitting the floor paired with some light rustling of couch cushions now underneath newfound weight created a simple but equally-weighty dilemma as the minutes passed.

I needed sleep but wanted answers. The problem with that however, was that this was a zero sum game where I anticipated that getting the latter would rob me too much of the former…or that not knowing the latter would preoccupy my thoughts enough to achieve the same exact outcome.

Seriously Squall, you and your timing collectively suck rocks. I should really punch you for this.

Coming to the conclusion that I was fooling no one after about a good 15 minutes of deliberation, I unravelled my blanket burrito and flopped around until I was free from its toasty goodness. I didn't hear any rustling from his couch in response but I was already committed to this – better to carry this out now than later, anyway.

Dipping my feet down to meet the coarse Berber floor, I stood up with one of the blankets draped around me like an oversized cape. There was still no movement on his end despite the minor swishing noises I was making; this pattern continued as I made the 5-step trek to his couch, cape dragging behind me and all. By the time I was standing right beside his upper body region, I could confirm the obvious conclusion that he was not asleep by the too perfectly blank expression on his face. Though his actual sleeping face was cuter, this was still kind of cute in a different way, actually. Reminded me of how little kids tried not to get in trouble for being up by pretending they were asleep in the most unsubtle way.

For fun, I took a different page from that same playbook by sitting down on the floor so my head was more-or-less eye level with his body. And then I did nothing but breathe in his general direction.

"…If your goal was to annoy me awake, mission accomplished." he groused after a good minute post sitting my blanketed butt down.

When I thought he cracked open an eye, I made a point of shaking my head. "Maybe…if you had been actually asleep at one point." I playfully countered. "But in all seriousness, are you ok? I mean, one doesn't voluntarily shrink their sleeping real estate without a reason. You looked awfully comfy in the bed."

"I'll live." he began, slowly turning his body to face mine as one of his limbs reached over to the lamp on the nightstand behind his head to click it on. A soft glow filled the intersection of his couch and mine. "Did anything happen when you left the room?"

"Nothing big, just Allison filling me in on plans." I curtly answered. "You see those duffel bags over there on the table?"

Squall craned his neck a little. "Yes."

"The light purple one is mine and the grey one is yours - yours has water, food and extra clothes for you. There's a phone that's in the side compartment of the purple one is for texting Allison or my father. They decided we're to stay down here until further notice. The 4 digit number punch code to the basement door was texted to me by Allison in case if there's an emergency and either of us need to go upstairs. On an unrelated note, did you just eat an invisible lemon? Your face is looking especially scrunchy."

"I'm…just confused." He sat himself up and letting the blankets pool in his lap. "How did your father go from distrusting me to…this?"

Maybe it was because my thoughts were elsewhere when I was talking to Allison but, I hadn't really thought about that. Semi-worried about the permanent kink settling in my neck, I got up to sit beside him on the couch. Fortunately for him, he was fast enough to move limbs so my butt wouldn't crush either of his legs this time.

"Yeah, Allison was able to convince him that you were a sentient gay robot." I said rather matter-of-factly. "I think the tipping point was her saying that your AI was programmed to clip every personal conversation we have in favour of promoting interpersonal independence and snapping in z-formation."

His face may have descrunchy-ed but it just meant that it was free to toss a sharp look at me now.

"Well…?"

"Well what?"

He snapped his fingers and I just broke into the biggest idiot grin.

"You didn't just-"

"-play along with your ridiculous fabricated story to end it? I might have."

My idiot grin wouldn't go away. Oh, your timing still sucks boulders, you jerkface.

I outstretched a hand. He decided to look at me as if I grew another head. "C'mon, you deserve a hi-five for seeing that opportunity and running with it. Don't leave me hanging here." He nudged me away with a blanketed foot. "Playing footsie with me now… really?"

"No hi fives until you answer me straight." he responded, foot still firmly sitting against my rib cage. "Why do you think we're downstairs like this?"

I lowered my arm a few seconds later – his foot still remained, though pressing a little less.

'What do you think? Allison vouched for our connection and you.' I sent, pushing away his foot. 'So don't make her regret it by doubting your own character, ok? You're a good person. A little on the grumpy side, but still good. If you're worried for some ulterior motive, you would have probably been shipped upstairs.'

I leaned forward and extended my hand again. Squall stared at me like I had a bad blemish on my face this time – which was an improvement, actually — and after not one, but two small eternities (I assume he was thoroughly deconstructing the likely bacteria content of my palm – after all, catching cooties was a devastating risk, given his state of health), he reluctantly hi fived me with as much impact as a wet noodle would have.

It was a start.

Re-securing my blanket, I shuffled off his couch to retake my previous position on my own couch.

…Or I would have had I not noticed a flash of this particular look on his face. As I sat back down, I turned to look at him proper.

'Yes Squall?'

His look dissipated into that of intense focus with traces of confusion, clearly trying to process my sudden decision to shift gears into reverse. He took a few more seconds to think it through then decided to give his thoughts a voice.

'…So, Allison didn't tell you that your father knows something that we don't?'

I shook my head. 'No. The only thing she said is that she's going to try and come up with a test tomorrow to get a good feel for what's happening with us.' I sent. 'And seeing as she happened to notice that I don't have broken skin on my neck anymore, there's obviously something up.'

'…I see.'

I scooted a little closer, my knees brushing up against his feet. 'You sound a little disappointed.'

'It's not disappointment.' He was quick to correct. 'I knew it was a longshot at best.'

'You can still be disappointed in longshots, you know. You'd be surprised at how many times I was sad that I didn't win the lottery draw I didn't buy tickets for.' I joshed, hugging my knees to my body. 'Jokes aside, I can bug him about what Allison said to you if you want.'

'Let's just focus on getting through tomorrow.'

'Fair enough. And on that note, I believe this is my cue to hop back on my own couch and actually attempt to sleep.'

I shifted my body towards the floor space did said hopping off the couch, blanket and all. No other words were said as I nestled myself in blankets after parking myself on the cushions to make me reconsider this once again – there was nothing but the prompt click of the lamp's light switch once I no longer needed the illumination to avoid subjecting my shins to the table's edges and corners.

"Night, Squall."

I was answered by the slight movement of covers and a murmur of a '…night' parroted back; I kept the resulting smirk and slight head shaking to myself as I closed my eyes to start my earnest attempt at snoozing.

-—-

When I woke up without the faintest clue as to what time it was – the basement was deep enough to not sport any windows – I cracked open my eyes. I didn't bother to dig into the duffel to fish out the phone so I could actually learn what time it was, I just stayed in the half-spread eagle position I'd ended up in.

My brain was too pre-occupied processing the fact that I could hear his intermittent breaths from behind me; it was something I hadn't ever considered happening. Especially when tilting my head backwards by a fraction confirmed their owner was directly behind me and not just on the couch.

"Hi."

"…Hi."

"Hi."

He raised a brow. "…You already said that."

"So I did." I shrugged. "What do I owe the pleasure of your attempt at returning yesterday's favor to, o' shirtless one?"

"…You're too damn chipper for 8 am, for real this time." he stated. "Allison wants to run the tests in an hour."

I shot him a few daggers, eliminating all the chipperness in my body right then and there. "Why did you wake me up this early then? Are you trying to be Satan?"

"Yeah, I'm doing this for my own amusement because there's nothing I like better than to be yelled at. And for the record, you woke up on your own before I could even wake you up." he dryly responded before walking around, presumably to be out of arms' reach.

"That doesn't change things if you intended on waking me up anyway, you know."

He picked the opposing armrest to sit on. "…Fine."

"So?"

"So what?"

"So…what did you really want to wake me up for?"

He got up and retook his spot on his couch.

"Just…forget about it."

I twisted my body around so I was facing him again. "I'm afraid that's not an option at this point."

He proceeded to cocoon himself in blankets and I got up to ready myself to un-cocoon him; he wasn't getting off the hook that easily. When my hands reached the hem of one of the outer layers, I could already tell this was going to be a fight judging by how tightly wound the blanket was and how little give I could get.

After about two seconds, I knew that this was going to be a losing battle so I switched tactics and sat on him.

"Mmmpfh!"

"Come out, come out, wherever you areee…" I said in a sing song manner.

I was promptly catapulted to the other side of the couch. Then the Squall-terpillar emerged into a dishevelled mess of a Squall-terfly. Or was it a Squall-th? I wasn't sure.

"…I don't have a reason, alright?" he exasperatingly said, "I don't know why."

Needless to say, I didn't believe him just like I didn't believe that Allison only woke him up to tell him about the test in an hour. I knew that much from seeing how he completely skirted everything last night.

"I think you do, you just haven't had the proper chance to process it yet. Tell you what," I began, "I will leave the room to go jump in the shower. You think about it some while I'm in there, ok?"

"…"

"…Or don't. Your choice. I'm still taking that shower either way."

When I got up, I received no resistance. No nudges, no verbal pleas, no nothing. I was free to go. And so I did.

'Fine.'

Squall sent that one word response the second my foot crossed the room's threshold.

Squall-terfly it was.