Be My Valentine!
Part XXII: Silent Love
"And we're back with another segment for 'Be My Valentine!', I'm your MC Evie Queen." Evie introduced herself with a smile
"Is it me or are the updates getting lesser each year?" Carlos pointed out. I mean it is literally February 29, 2020 at this point. [Happy Leap Day, everyone]
"I get writers block and life keeps me busy sometimes, deal with it." The authoress shouted all the way from the director's chair.
"Today, we have some guest characters who are gonna be watching this segment. Introducing…the Andrews family" Lou motioned over to a family of 13 siblings.
"Is that why we didn't invite Jay?" Carlos asked Jones.
"Oh yeah, he gets jealous every time my sister brings up Roman" Jones smirked as he nodded.
"Also, Tracy and Roman are already engaged long before they met." Riker added with a grin.
"So what exactly are we here for again?" One of the younger siblings, Ranger, raised a hand and asked.
"Well, today we will be observing how people spend Valentines' Day, and last year we covered a segment and invited your dad to revisit memories of his wedding day with your mom." Carlos mentioned.
"Is that why Dr. Gao is here?" Evie raised a hand and asked, motioning to Dr. Gao standing in the room with the rest of them.
"And you guys didn't invite us when dad revisiting his memories with our mom?! We are THEIR CHILDREN!" Rainey exclaimed dramatically.
"Rainey here can be a bit dramatic sometimes." Reese informed the hosts.
"Can we see grandpa and grandma's love story now?" Ricky asked, raising a hand.
"Sure, wait where did you guys locked up Jay?" Evie asked.
"In the planetarium." Jones grinned.
"Fowl play, I see?" Riker joked, as he turned into a bird. "Get it?"
"I regret giving you pun books for your birthday a few years ago." Roman shook his head.
"This is the Stone of Truth; it allows whoever put their hand on it to reenact memories." Tracy motioned to a stone carved like an open book to Gao.
"Just put your hand on it and it will display the memories on the screen." Carlos instructed as Gao nodded, he places his hand on the Stone of Truth.
"Enjoy the show!" Lou added, as the clips started to play.
~ Couple: Dr. Gao (Lab Rats) x Aiko Kwon (OC) ~
17-year-old Gao Min-Jun rolled his eyes, as he dusted off the grass from his hair. Ugh, high school bullies can be so incompetent and rude. And he lost his favorite hiding spot for where he would hide from the bullies. He was often made fun of from being one of the "smart kids" and for his physique.
He made his way to an old abandoned garden that apparently used to belong to some rich folks but abandoned their home during World War II.
"This should be a good and quiet place for me to study on my own." Min-Jun shrugged, before he walked his way further into the garden.
You can tell the place has been abandoned for a very long time, the mansion was run-down with moss growing all over the walls and vines decorating the broken windows.
He walked around the old mansion until he spotted a girl his age sitting under a tree, reading a book.
"Ack, I didn't know someone was here first. Should I wave?" Min-Jun thought to himself, before he realized that the girl had noticed him. She had long raven black hair, dark eyes and pale skin.
He can't just run away; he'd look like a creep!
The teenage boy decided to walk over to introduce himself, but he noticed that the girl started backing away to hide behind the large tree frightenedly.
"No, no. It's ok. I'm not a bad guy." Min-Jun apologized for scaring the girl.
"See? I'm just here to find a place to read. I didn't mean to scare you." Min-Jun slowly approached the girl. After a few seconds, the girl stepped out from behind the tree to look at him.
The girl pointed at the book Min-Jun was carrying.
"I was just reading about Biochemistry, see?" Min-Jun reached his hand out to stretch and show the girl his book.
The girl slowly approached him, and took his book to read it with a fascinated and immersed expression on her face as she flipped through the pages.
"Hi, I'm Gao Min-Jun." Min-Jun stretched out his hand to introduce himself.
The girl looked up, before she smiled and shook his hand.
"What is your name?" Min-Jun asked.
She pointed at her ears with a weak smile.
It dawned to Min-Jun that she was deaf.
"How did you know what I was saying?" He asked.
The girl pointed at his mouth.
"You can lip read?" Min-Jun asked, as the girl nodded.
"Ai-Ko Kwon." She pointed at herself, trying to communicate with him while also using sign language to explain her name to him.
"Hello Aiko." Min-Jun nodded at her politely.
"I'll just be reading here; I don't want to scare you away." Min-Jun pointed at the ground before he sat down under the tree. Aiko watched him cautiously before she eventually took a seat beside him.
As a few days went by, Min-Jun would return to the garden and find Aiko there sitting down and reading a book of her own. He liked sitting beside her, reading. They never really spoke to each other, but he finds her company endearing.
'How would I talk to her since I can't talk in sign language?' Min-Jun thought of a way to communicate with her. Before one day be brought a notepad and a pencil with him and wrote something on it before handing it to Aiko.
Since you can't talk and I don't like talking, why don't we write to each other instead? – G.M.J.
A few minutes later after overhearing her scribbling onto the notepad, she handed back the book to him.
Ok, I'm happy to communicate with you like this. – Aiko, K.
After that, they liked writing messages to each other. This was their way of talking to each other. And as time went by, they grew to enjoy being around each other. They would write to each other and exchange letters every day.
"What book are you reading?" Min-Jun asked her one day while they meet up to read under the tree.
Aiko turned over and showed him the book cover of the book she was reading.
'1001 Arabian Nights'
"It's strange that you like reading stories so much." Min-Jun mused a bit. He has always been a man of science and logic, and doesn't believe in childish things like fairytales or things that cannot be explained by science.
Reading stories are my comfort hobby. Storytelling has always made me feel like I was a part of something that is bigger than myself.
"Have you ever tried telling stories with sign language?"
It is my secret hobby, but I refuse to let my family know about it. -Aiko, K.
"Strict family?" Min-Jun questioned.
Aiko have a shrug, something like that.
"Well, I am not usually someone who believes in fairytales, but you can read to me." Min-Jun offered.
Aiko blinked, surprised before she smiled and nodded.
Min-Jun ended up enjoying Aiko's storytelling, and admits she has a gift.
"You are amazing." He cheered as he applauded her.
Aiko gave a short curtsy bow, blushing a bit.
If you think this is amazing, you should see this. Aiko wrote to him.
"See what?" Min-Jun asked, before he saw that Aiko started creating a small sphere of light from her hands. She started to move her hands a little, signing something as the light morphed into the shape of a little bird that flew around them.
"W-What was that?!" Min-Jun asked, shocked but impressed.
'I have superpowers.' Aiko wrote into the air with her powers.
"How was that possible? I mean the human body is impossible to generate light from their hands." Min-Jun began to ask a lot of questions, this is beyond anything he has ever know from reading about science and technology.
That is what I have been trying to tell you. I am not a normal human. I trust you enough to tell you about who I am.
Aiko wrote back.
"That is actually astounding. I never knew about this before. You are the most amazing person I have ever met!" Min-Jun was still trying to process what he has learned from his new friend.
'You cannot tell anyone about my powers, or my family will be furious' Aiko begged him.
"You can count on me. I can keep a secret." Min-Jun nodded.
"Can you teach me sign language?" Min-Jun asked.
Aiko was surprised but smiled and nodded.
And that was the start of a blossoming relationship. It was to be sweet, everlasting but short-lived romance
~Clips Ended~
"What happens next?" Rainey asked. "I mean, Grandpa and Granma never got married."
"No, I wanted to propose to her, and I promised to come back and marry her." Gao spoke out with a small smile. "But I was too late."
"So ahem, uh how did you get here on time? I thought you were supposed to be somewhere else." Jones asked.
"I can teleport now, remember? I invented liquified Bionics after all." Dr Gao bragged a little.
"Yeah, we remember. Thanks for possessing me in process." Leo Dooley called out from the other side of the recording studio.
"You're welcome!" Dr. Gao yelled back.
"Oh, grandpa and grandma have such a sweet romance." Regina, one of the grandkids, sighed.
"Yeah, at least we got to see how grandpa and grandma met for the first time." Reese smiled.
"I always love watching love stories." Lou sniffled, as she blew into a tissue.
"Eww, germs!" Ranger exclaimed.
"So which couple are we gonna cover next time?" Lou asked.
"Next time will probably be next year, again." Evie spoke out.
"Because Jones just told me that Jay has escaped the planetarium so he can fight Roman, we need to wrap this up soon." Carlos declared.
"This is weird, I never actually expected guys to actually like my sister." Jones joked as his sister punched his elbow lightly.
"I will still be writing for this story; it's been the few stories I am still working on for the past few years now. Ad trust me I am still not done with this one just yet." The authoress assured the rest of them. "I have just been really busy for the last few months."
"The next couple will be…drums please." Riker and his younger siblings decided to play as Hosts while the older MCs were talking to the authoress. Ricky and AJ started to drum their fingers against the table.
"Shelby Marcus and Logan Krane!" Rory declared loudly.
"I ship those two so much." Lou immediately went fangirl mode when she hears about two of her classmates being the next couple.
"Hey Grandpa, can we all go out for some pancakes after this?" Rainey turned to their grandpa.
"Sure thing. Roman you should totally invite your girlfriend too." Gao turned to Roman who was having a tug of war with Jay with Tracy between them.
"Sure, it's a good idea, grandpa!" Roman agreed.
"NO IT IS NOT!" Jay protested.
"Hey, do you hear that cracking? That is not the fire, it's my limbs!" Tracy yelled over as the guys stopped pulling at her hand.
"Guess it means my sis and her boyfriends won't be around next chapter. Whew that is way better." Jones nodded.
"Anyway, thank you for reading this segment." Evie turned to the screen.
"Feel free to favorite or follow this story for more updates." Carlos nodded.
"And leave a review down below and tell us what you think of the chapter." Lou smiled.
"Have a nice day everyone, bye!" all the Andrews siblings waved at the screen along with the hosts and Dr. Gao.
Chapter Talk:
I decided to give Dr. Gao from Lab Rat a backstory, since in most of my stories I had him being the father of Rina (Rodissiuss's wife and the mother of Roman and his siblings) so I decided to elaborate more about Aiko (Gao's first love, whom he still loves). In one of my one-shots for Rodissiuss/Rina, Rina mentions her mom died in a fire when she was 12.
Aiko Kwon is from a powerful old shapeshifting family but she is born with disabilities (deaf with weaker powers) but I based a bit of her character from Scheherazade (from a parody play by Starkid Productions called Twisted: The Untold Story of the Royal Vizier, which was like Wicked, but Jafar as the Main Lead), and Scheherazade is Jafar's wife for the play. I really liked the concept of Aiko being able to manipulate light and use sign language to morph these lights into characters to set the scene for storytelling. Plus, that would explain why Rina and Reese are able to morph into light.
