Chapter 50: A Strange Meeting
A/N: The fiftieth chapter. Quite a milestone.
It feels like a lifetime ago that I started writing for this story. And good GOD, I was NOT expecting it to blow up this much.
50 reviews! 74 favourites! 82 follows!
OVER 39 THOUSAND VIEWS!
HOW?!
I honestly can't comprehend how pecking insane this is. It's super flattering to think about.
So, I'm gonna do the best I can to finish this story off strongly.
Unfortunately, after this story is finished I'll probably have to get caught up on my other fanfics. I've basically dropped 3 stories because I was stupid and bit off more than I could chew.
But we've still got a good, like, 10 chapters left, at least. So let's keep the train a-rolling.
So... the rest of the day...
Where do I even begin...?
I had to chase her around the whole damn ship for hours to make sure she didn't do anything dangerous or rash.
But she was always one step ahead. She'd ride around on her poor Rumbi, which continued to try to do its job with a face of extreme exertion. She'd also bounce around, mess with things...
You know, things you'd expect a little girl hyped up on sugar to do.
It was awful.
But, strangely enough, I enjoyed it a bit. Seeing the kid that full of energy, having fun, it made me smile.
Even though she drove me up the pecking wall.
I imagined that attempting to chase after her for so long probably also gave me one heck on an exercise.
But eventually, after God knows how long of attempting to supervise her, I somehow managed to lose track of her.
I was in the main hall, and I couldn't hear her running around, giggling, tampering with anything, or whatever.
"Kid?" I called.
No reply.
Either she was trying to pull a prank on me or she was unable to hear me.
I sighed tiredly.
This was getting out of hand.
I looked in her bedroom, and even poked around a bit in her mountain of pillows. She wasn't there.
I checked the kitchen. Nope.
I checked the engine room, both sides of it. She wasn't there either.
I used my dweller charm and headed down to the lab. Nothing.
I used my new badge to head down the manhole to the storage room, but for naught.
There wasn't many places to hide in the ship, so I was beginning to get confused.
The last place to check was the machine room and gallery.
So I went to the machine room and looked around.
And there she was.
She was sitting at a desk. Her face was pressed against the desk, and I could tell that she was sound asleep.
She must've crashed from the sugar rush.
I couldn't just leave her there, but I also couldn't just wake her up, she was probably exhausted.
So I gently picked her up, walked across the spaceship to her bedroom, and tucked her in.
It was the least I could do.
I walked over to the door to leave, but I stopped and looked back.
And I realized just how lucky I was.
Lucky to be brought from my crappy old life, where it was just the same meaningless garbage every day, to here. Where I finally found purpose and meaning: to finally have something to care about, to protect.
And thus, lucky to have met the kid.
We may not have met on good terms, but looking back, it was actually pretty funny to think about.
It was funny. When I was back there, I thought I was home when in reality I was lost, and when I was brought here I thought I was lost when in reality I was home.
Ironic.
But I now knew where home really was. Here. With the kid. With our friends.
And it would always be that way.
With that thought, I shut the lights off and walked out.
I hopped in my hammock and took a deep breath.
I still wanted to go back to my homeworld someday. If it was possible. But that would only be for the sake of my memories and to maybe tell any friends or family where I was and say goodbye to them.
I mean, it was frustrating that I still didn't have all my memories back. I still didn't even know my own name!
I didn't know if I ever would get all of my memories back. Remember who I really was.
But if I didn't... it didn't matter. I knew who I was now, and who I wanted to be. Where I wanted to be.
The thought brought a smile to my face.
...
I must've fallen asleep soon after that thought.
I found myself... somewhere. It was too blurry all around to see anything clearly...
Except for right in front of me.
I saw a young boy standing there. He must've been around the kid's age, maybe a bit older. He had black hair and was wearing black dress pants and a red dress shirt, accompanied by a small white tie.
He seemed to be talking to someone, but I couldn't make out the words.
Strangely, I felt like I could... read his personality, although I couldn't tell why.
He seemed...
Well.
He seemed... a bit like me.
Snarky. Pessimistic. Not exactly full of energy, but not relaxed either. I could also sense self-doubt.
I could tell he was fighting his self-doubt, but it was still there, clear as day.
What I felt the strongest was a burning desire to keep someone or something safe.
He would die a thousand times over to keep it or them safe.
Heh... like me with the kid.
"Who are you?"A voice hissed.
I snapped back into focus and found the young man staring directly at me.
I scratched the back of my head and shrugged my shoulders.
"How... did you get here?" He asked.
"I'm in a dream," I answered, "None of this is real."
"Seems pretty real to me. To me, you just appeared out of nowhere," He muttered.
Well that was odd. It didn't even really feel like a dream, now that I thought about it.
He was staring at me. I stared back.
"You... you and I are... we're alike, aren't we?" He asked.
"I believe so," I responded, "We both have something to protect. To care about."
He raised an eyebrow and frowned.
"How do you know that?" He asked.
I shrugged my shoulders again, and he crossed his arms.
"Something wrong?" I asked.
"Oh, no, we always see strangers appear in our spaceship without the alarm going off that seem to be able to read my mind," He said sarcastically.
I chuckled.
"Fair enough," I said.
I heard a high-pitched muffled voice, and he looked over his shoulder.
"Huh?" He said.
More muffled voice.
"... It's nothing," He said.
He then turned around and looked back at me.
"Look, as much as I'd love to stay and chat, I have things to do," He said impatiently.
"I get it," I replied, "You seem like you've got a lot on your plate."
He nodded, then turned around and took a few steps, before stopping and turning to face me again.
"... Good luck," He suddenly said.
It dawned on me that he was able to read my emotions, too. He was wishing me luck with something he saw in me.
I nodded slowly. It all made sense.
"You too, kid," I responded.
He walked away, and it all suddenly vanished. Like a mirage.
I now found myself floating in an empty void. Alone.
And I woke up, remembering it all vividly.
"Huh..." I muttered, "That was odd. Didn't even really feel like a dream."
It was interesting, too. That 'Tie' person and I had a lot in common.
But... it couldn't have been real, could it? Just because it felt real didn't make it real. It was probably just my exhausted mind taking my own worries and feelings and projecting them to myself.
It was nothing, surely.
So, I turned over in my hammock and closed my eyes, sleep taking hold of me again soon afterward.
A/N: So, as you can see, we've got a special appearance in this chapter: Tie, from OPfan37's A Hat and a Tie in Time. Hopefully I didn't make him very out-of-character.
But yeah, If you haven't read that story yet, then go do it. If you like this story, which you probably do if you've hung around this long, you'll love it. It's freaking amazing. Far, far, better than my own story.
Also, I plan on having other little segments dedicated to other AHiT fanfics. Just to honour them, so to speak. I won't say which, because that would be spoilers. :P
But anyway, hopefully you enjoyed.
