Even before Mimic had gotten her original orders, she hadn't been able to properly attend any therapy sessions with Mizuki, her therapist. After she was kidnapped, it had been because she didn't want to leave SciLab while ProtoMan was in so much pain. But after she'd gotten her original orders, she just couldn't go to the hospital anymore, because the risk of Nebula attacking and kidnapping her while she was in the middle of a session with Mizuki was too great.
Instead, Mizuki had come up with a great compromise - they could have their weekly sessions in Mimic's bedroom. Arcadia can't leave Mimic's side, so he's still in the white PET in the charger on Mimic's desk, but being in Mimic's bedroom gives them some of the privacy that the therapy room at the hospital had. And it's better this way, because there's always someone else in the house, so there's not as much risk.
Mimic sits at the head of her futon, leaning against the wall with Ragdoll curled up on her lap. Mizuki is sitting cross-legged on the other end of Mimic's futon - at first, she'd been sitting at Mimic's desk, but Mimic didn't really like having to look up at her all the time, so Mizuki had sat down on the futon with her. It's more comfortable for both of them.
"Are you sure ignoring him is the best way to handle this?" Mizuki asks. She's keeping her tone light and open - not accusing Mimic of anything, just being curious.
Mimic strokes a hand through Ragdoll's fur as she replies. "I'd . . . just h-hiss at him if I tried to . . . t-talk to him now," she murmurs. "Not- n-not gonna ignore him f-for . . . forever. Just a while."
"You're waiting until you're not as frustrated with him," Mizuki guesses.
Mimic looks at her, surprised. She hadn't thought of it like that - is that really why she's still ignoring Lan? Not to be petty, but because she's just waiting until she's okay to actually talk to him?
She thinks about it, and then decides it's probably a mixture of both. She does want to wait until she's okay to talk to him, but she still wants to punish him a little bit more, make him feel ashamed of himself, so she can get some petty sense of satisfaction out of it.
Most people would probably be horrified at such dark intentions, but Mimic's not really that bothered by them. The alternative is getting violent and putting Lan in the hospital because she can't control what she does if she gets angry enough. Call her petty all you want, but if it comes down a choice between being a petty bitch or attacking Lan, she'd rather be a petty bitch. No matter how much Lan pisses her off, she doesn't want to hurt him - physically, at least.
Mizuki looks at her for a few moments, clearly able to tell that she's come to a realisation. When she next speaks, she moves the subject away from Mimic ignoring Lan.
"How are you finding your new orders?" Mizuki asks her. "You told me they're not as restrictive as your original ones were."
Mimic nods, relieved to be talking about something other than Lan. "Still can't go out at night," she replies. "No school. But I- I can help with Net Saver s-stuff. Can do missions on my own, if- if Lan's not around."
"That's good," Mizuki says, giving her a friendly smile. "I know you enjoy being able to do Net Saver missions - you've talked about them quite a lot, and I could tell how much you love being a Net Saver."
"Didn't wanna be one at first," Mimic admits, absently fiddling with Ragdoll's tail. He lets her mess with it amiably, purring loudly, but Mimic can still talk to Mizuki over the sound. "Scared. Of Darkloids."
"I remember you told me about that," Mizuki says softly.
Mimic nods. "You s-said I- I might walk away from . . . from a battle, at s-some point. And I'd realise I wasn't scared. I think . . . I don't think m'scared anymore." She slumps her shoulders a little. "But . . . I can't fight now."
"Because ProtoMan isn't here," Mizuki guesses, when Mimic falls silent.
Mimic nods again, staring at her feet. She can't bring herself to look up at Mizuki - it's not that she's afraid of seeing disappointment or anger, but she's just too sad to look up.
The pain of losing ProtoMan to the Darkloids won't go away until they get him back. She's not even sure if it'll go away even after that happens - like with the Poltergeist Program, Mimic will always have to carry the guilt that she did this to him, she hurt him and changed him. But as long as he's back with her, back with Arcadia, she thinks she'll be able to deal with it.
"I don't know if he'll come back," Mizuki begins carefully, "but I think he'd be proud of how far you've come. You can still help, even if you can't fight - that Battle Chip Gate lets you help Lan during Cross Fusion, and you said you and Arcadia recently began to re-learn how to use battle chips together. Maybe you aren't fighting yourself, but you're helping others fight. Do you think that's enough, for now?"
Mimic finally drags her gaze up to look at Mizuki. She gives her answer careful thought, but in the end, it's actually pretty simple.
"Yes," she says.
The session doesn't last much longer after that, because Mimic's said all she wants to for now - hopefully by next week, she'll be talking to Lan again, and will have something good to tell Mizuki. Sometimes she feels like she only ever tells Mizuki about bad stuff. She'd like to talk about good stuff every now and then.
Mizuki's just about to head out of Mimic's bedroom when she suddenly pauses, turning back around. Mimic looks back at her curiously, wondering why she's stopped - it can't be anything bad, because Mizuki is smiling.
"School ends for the term this week, doesn't it?" Mizuki asks. Mimic nods, and Mizuki's smile grows a little wider. "I think, if you're able to go back next term, you'll be ready to go to school full-time."
Mimic gapes at her, completely taken by surprise.
After a few moments of letting Mizuki's words sink in, Mimic grins. Most kids probably wouldn't be so excited at the thought of going to school full-time, but Mimic isn't most kids - she's only been able to handle three days a week, sometimes four if she's up to it, but she's never gone for the full five.
The fact that Mizuki thinks she's ready to go to school full-time is the best thing Mimic's heard recently. She hopes they can take down Nebula before summer vacation ends - she wants to go into the new term as it starts, rather than coming in halfway through or something.
After Mizuki heads back to the hospital, Mimic goes downstairs. Dr. Hikari's doing some work at the dinner table, Haruka's humming to herself in the kitchen, and Lan's sitting on one of the sofas. He looks up as Mimic enters, but before she can see his almost desperate expression, she turns away and wanders over to Haruka. She can practically feel Lan's disappointment, but even if Mizuki helped her realise the actual reason she's still ignoring him, she's not ready to talk.
Mimic tugs on Haruka's sleeve to get her attention. "C-can I have- um-" She holds up her catnip stick.
Haruka blinks at the state it's in. Mimic's practically chewed it to pieces by now, and it's barely holding itself together. It's lasted this long, though, so that's a testament to the stick's durability at least. Mimic still kind of prefers chewing on sponges - though she knows she's not supposed to, no matter how much she enjoys ripping them apart - but gnawing on the stick was definitely better in the long-run.
"Alright," Haruka laughs softly, "hold on a moment."
She reaches up to open the cupboard where Ragdoll's food and litter are stored. The catnip sticks are tucked away to the side, and Haruka takes one out and hands it to Mimic.
Mimic feels a gentle tugging at the bottom of her pants, and she looks down curiously to see Ragdoll clawing at her, looking up pleadingly. He doesn't meow, but the look on his face is enough to tell her what he wants.
It's enough for Haruka too, because she laughs again and takes out another catnip stick. She holds it over Ragdoll's head, and he stretches up to try and bat at it. Haruka lets it drop and Ragdoll immediately starts chewing on it, his pupils turning from slits to round circles. Within moments, he's rolling around on the floor, purring loudly, and Mimic stifles a giggle as she steps back to give him room.
I wonder if my eyes do that? Mimic suddenly wonders.
Do what? Chaud asks.
What a cat's eyes do, she clarifies. With the slit pupils and stuff.
Uh . . . I'm not really sure, Chaud says. She can feel his curiosity growing. We haven't really looked at our reflection that closely, to be honest.
Something to think about, Mimic decides.
She hears faint footsteps behind her, suddenly. She recognises them as Lan's, and tries not to let her mood immediately sour, but it's difficult. At the very least, she doesn't glare at him when she turns around to face him.
"Um," Lan begins awkwardly, "me, Maylu, and Tory are gonna head to the arcade today. Do . . . do you wanna come?"
Mimic just looks at him without responding.
"I . . . I guess that's a no," Lan murmurs, wincing. "Uh . . . I'll see you later, then?"
She still doesn't respond.
Lan slumps, and Mimic feels a tiny flicker of guilt. It's not strong enough to make her talk to him, but it's difficult not to feel anything when she's looking at his misery face-to-face. She still doesn't talk even when Lan calls out a goodbye to everyone in the house, pretending that she's distracted by Ragdoll's catnip-induced playing near her feet.
She's aware of the adult Hikaris looking at her, and feels the familiar burn of shame as she crouches and tugs Ragdoll's catnip stick out of his jaws, then tosses it over to the sofas so he scampers after it. She follows him, settling down on the sofa, and he jumps up next to her and pushes his head against her arm, clearly begging her to throw the stick again.
Mimic's not one to disappoint her cat, so she picks up the stick and tosses it onto the other sofa for him. Ragdoll chases it, chews it for a moment, and then drags it back to Mimic.
"I talked to Lan," Dr. Hikari says, as Mimic throws the stick again. "He knows what he did wrong. And he's apologised for it."
"I know," Mimic mumbles. Ragdoll comes back again and she takes the stick, holding it over his head and letting him snatch at it with his teeth.
"You're still mad at him?" Haruka guesses gently.
Mimic lets the stick drop, watching Ragdoll drag it away to the other end of the sofa, where he gnaws at it. She turns her attention to the stick Haruka had given her and absently fiddles with it.
"You've always worked things out whenever you've argued in the past," Dr. Hikari says. "What's different this time?"
" . . . Tried to hit me," Mimic replies. She clenches her fists, clutching the stick. "M'not . . . m'not gonna ignore him f-f-forever. Just. A little while. S'all." She ducks her head. "Don't like it, but . . . m'not good. T-to talk to him. Not right now."
She hears Haruka's light footsteps coming toward her, and looks up as the woman settles down next to her. Haruka reaches out and draws Mimic into a hug, gently kissing the top of her head.
"We understand, sweetheart," Haruka says softly. "Talk whenever you're ready, okay?"
"'kay," Mimic says faintly, pressing into Haruka's side. She glances over at Dr. Hikari and sees his smile before he goes back to working on whatever it is that he's doing.
An hour or two after Lan leaves, Dr. Hikari suddenly gets a call on his PET. Mimic's still letting Haruka cuddle her, but she glances up curiously, wondering if it's anything to do with SciLab or the Net Police - she can't remember exactly what came after SwordMan's failed attack on the research facility, so she's mainly just waiting for something to jog her memory.
She hears Lan's voice coming from Dr. Hikari's PET, and makes out something about Shiisaa Island and MegaMan getting blown away by a tornado. Oh, right - this is how MegaMan gets Wind Soul. She'd almost forgotten about this episode, because it was nearly as ridiculous as the episodes from the original series.
MegaMan, Roll, and IceMan somehow get blown all the way to a digital temple on Shiisaa Island, and Lan, Maylu, Tory, and Higsby have to go to the real world island to find them. Then Ms. Yuri tries to steal some sort of artefact, and the entire island is thrown into chaos with a massive storm of wind that only gets calmed down when MegaMan and WindMan work together to defeat NeedleMan, who was taken over by the power of the artefact, and MegaMan gets Wind Soul out of the battle.
Wind Soul looks pretty cool, from what Mimic can remember. It's a shame Lan doesn't use it much in the anime.
But at least Mimic remembers what's going on, now. She still can't remember what comes next - she knows, of course, but she can't remember the order in which things happen. She'll just have to do what she always does, and wait for something to happen so she can be reminded.
She closes her eyes and leans into Haruka's side, feeling the faint vibration of Haruka's quiet chuckle in response. Ragdoll's still on the other end of the sofa, now officially in a catnip-induced coma, and his purring is somehow even louder than it usually is. Which is, frankly, very impressive.
Then she opens her eyes a little when she hears Arcadia calling out to her. He doesn't sound alarmed or anything, so there's nothing to worry about - but he sounds very excited, which is rare for him nowadays. The poor white owl-Navi has hardly acted like himself ever since . . . well, ever since ProtoMan turned into Dark ProtoMan.
"Chaud!" Arcadia exclaims. "SearchMan's here!"
Mimic bolts upright, startling Haruka, and takes out the white PET. It's true - SearchMan is standing next to Arcadia, and he gives her a friendly wave when he sees her.
"Hello again," SearchMan says.
I know Raika said he'd send SearchMan over, Mimic thinks, but I didn't think he'd show up so soon. It's been, what, three days since Raika left?
Are you complaining? Chaud asks.
Hell no, Mimic replies, amused. I'm just saying.
"Oh, hello there," Haruka says, reminding Mimic that she's still sitting next to her. "You're . . . um . . . I'm sorry, I don't know your name."
"I'm SearchMan," SearchMan replies, bowing politely. "I am the NetNavi of Raika."
"Oh!" Haruka's expression brightens. "That nice boy with the mint-coloured hair?"
SearchMan looks a little startled to hear his operator's hair colour described like that, but he nods anyway.
"I apologise for intruding," SearchMan goes on. "My operator sent me to give Chaud something. Where are you right now?"
"Home. Downstairs," Mimic replies, wondering just what Raika could be giving her. He's already given her a couple of Vulcans - maybe he's decided to give her some more battle chips or something? It'd have to be the data of the battle chips, if that's the case, because there's no other way for SearchMan to be able to deliver something like that.
Though she's not sure why her location matters. If it's battle chip data, SearchMan could easily just give it to Arcadia, and she could ask Dr. Hikari to help her figure out how to transfer the data to her empty chips. She can't do it directly from the white PET, since Arcadia isn't connected to it and she can't download any battle chips to it, but Dr. Hikari would be able to help her, definitely.
"Do you have a computer?" SearchMan asks her.
Mimic nods, feeling even more mystified now.
"Would you mind letting me into it?" SearchMan goes on. "I can't tell you what it is I'm giving you - Raika said he wants it to be a surprise. But it's a computer program, so I'll need to download it for you."
And now Mimic is completely lost. Just what the hell has Raika decided to give her, if not battle chip data? She can't think of anything, certainly not any computer programs, that would require SearchMan to download it onto a computer. She can understand why he doesn't download it to the white PET, since it's technically not hers, but that doesn't stop her from wondering what this is.
She heads upstairs, deciding to leave Ragdoll for now - he's still in his catnip-coma, so there's no point in disturbing him. He's too big for her to carry and she doesn't want to get scratched if he gets annoyed for being disturbed.
As soon as SearchMan is inside her computer, he starts downloading the program, whatever it is. He doesn't let Mimic see what it is - and he stops Arcadia from trying to peer around him, obviously guessing that Arcadia will immediately tell Mimic if he sees what it is. The program doesn't take very long to download, and SearchMan loads it up the second it's finished, not even giving Mimic a chance to catch a glimpse of what it could be.
The program loads fairly quickly, and she can't help but gape at the screen - it's a little different to the ones she's seen before, but she'd have to be completely stupid to not recognise a training program.
"It's a Sharo training program," SearchMan tells her, materialising inside the program with Arcadia not far behind. SearchMan continues speaking as Arcadia looks around, eyes wide as he takes in the new program. "It might be a little different to how Japanese training programs are structured, but Raika thought you could use this if you ever want to train when you're not at SciLab."
"How much did this . . . ?" Mimic trails off.
"How much did it cost?" SearchMan guesses her question. "Absolutely nothing. All Sharo Net Savers are issued a training program as soon as they're hired - Raika just created a copy of his, and gave it to me so I could download it for you."
Sharo Net Savers have their shit together, Mimic thinks, still stunned.
Now I'm wondering why the Japanese Net Savers don't do this, Chaud mutters. Seems like Sharo is better at Net Saver stuff than Japan is. At least in terms of training.
I think it's because Sharo is a military-kinda country, Mimic replies. I could be wrong, though.
"While I'm here," SearchMan begins, "would you like to have another training session? Raika doesn't need me at the moment - he can call me back if he does anyway. I can help you figure out the training program, too."
"Yeah!" Arcadia bounces, wings just barely flapping out of excitement.
Mimic nods as well, unable to stop a grin from spreading. It's hard not to share Arcadia's excitement, especially when this is the most animated he's been in a while - not including battles, anyway.
"Do you want to focus on battle chips or hand-to-hand combat?" SearchMan asks.
"Hand-to-hand combat!" Mimic and Arcadia exclaim in unison.
SearchMan looks briefly startled at their eagerness, but he huffs out a surprised chuckle and they get right down to business.
He gives them a quick tutorial of the Sharo training program - it functions more or less like Japanese training programs do, but there are some features that're different. There's a virus emulator that creates a copy of any virus so Navis can practise fighting them, along with the standard dummy Navi feature that lets Navis practise against computer-generated opponents. It also has the target system that Japanese training programs have, though since this program is a copy of Raika's, the targets seem to focus more on sharpshooting - which is perfectly fine, because Arcadia has his Avenger's Arrow, and the gun-type battle chips they have can be used to practise on the targets.
After the tutorial, SearchMan picks up where they left off in their previous training session with hand-to-hand combat. He gets Arcadia to run through the moves he's already shown him, just to check his form, and once he's satisfied that Arcadia is good with those, he shows them some new moves.
A few hours pass before any of them even notice. They only realise when Dr. Hikari comes in at one point, starts to speak, and then pauses when he sees Arcadia trying to slam SearchMan into the side of the screen.
"Are you . . . having a NetBattle?" Dr. Hikari asks hesitantly.
"Oh, no, no!" Arcadia says brightly, untangling himself from SearchMan and stepping back. "We're training in hand-to-hand combat. SearchMan helped me figure out some ways I can use my wings, too!"
"His wings are very strong," SearchMan comments. "And he can use them for more than aerial combat."
" . . . Right," Dr. Hikari says, after a moment's pause. He glances at Mimic, apparently deciding to just leave the Navis to it. "Lan called a few minutes ago - he and the others found their Navis, and apparently saved the island from a storm." He chuckles. "Only Lan could lose MegaMan and somehow end up saving an entire island."
"Done weirder," Mimic points out.
"True," Dr. Hikari admits. "He said he's on the way back now, anyway. The plane'll be arriving at the airport in an hour or two. I'll be heading there to pick him up - I just thought I'd let you know, in case you come downstairs and wonder why I'm gone, too. Haruka's still here, don't worry."
"'kay," Mimic says. She glances at her computer. "Probably stay up here, though. Wanna see Arcadia beat up SearchMan again."
SearchMan frowns at her and Mimic shoots him a grin. Arcadia giggles beside him, and SearchMan sighs, looking resigned. He probably regrets letting Arcadia practise his new moves on him - Arcadia's already started to figure out how to use his wings, and even though SearchMan's the one who helped him with that, he'd still been taken by surprise and had promptly gotten his ass handed to him.
"Well, as long as you're enjoying yourselves," Dr. Hikari says good-naturedly. "Arcadia, don't hurt SearchMan too much, alright? I don't think Raika would be too happy if his Navi comes home missing an arm or something."
"I'm not gonna rip his arm off," Arcadia protests, offended. "I'm not ProtoMan-" He suddenly stops, looking disconcerted.
There's an awkward and mildly depressing pause.
" . . . Sorry," Arcadia mumbles faintly, staring at his taloned feet. Mimic doesn't need his Empath Program to know how he must be feeling right now.
Mimic traces her fingers over the screen, lingering on Arcadia. He glances up and gives her a weak smile before looking away again.
"I'll get going, now," Dr. Hikari says quietly, obviously figuring out that they need some privacy at the moment. "See you later, alright?"
"Bye," Mimic says. She very nearly adds Dad on the end, but manages to stop herself just in time.
After Dr. Hikari leaves, Mimic turns back to her computer. Arcadia still looks a little depressed from his verbal blunder, but before Mimic can try and figure out what to say or do, SearchMan speaks up.
"Do you want to continue?" he asks gently, or as gently as he's capable of. He seems a little better at this comfort stuff than his operator, though he still looks intensely awkward. "We . . . we could stop, for a while. If you want."
"N-no, I'm . . ." Arcadia takes a deep breath and looks up. "I'm good. Let's keep going."
It's clear he's hoping that the training will help him take his mind off ProtoMan. SearchMan seems to understand that too, because he starts teaching Arcadia a new and complicated move that definitely requires focus to pull off. It seems to work.
Mimic reminds herself to thank SearchMan for his tact before he leaves. Awkward comfort aside, he at least knows how to distract Arcadia from his sadness.
Lan stares out the window of the plane, looking at the ocean but not really seeing it. He'd been distracted from his misery for a brief few hours when MegaMan, Roll, and IceMan had been blown away to Shiisaa Island, and then they'd had to save the island's deity from Ms. Yuri, but now that the adventure is over and he's heading home . . . he can't help but think about Chaud.
Namely, how Chaud's still ignoring him. He's tried apologising, but that doesn't seem to be enough. Lan doesn't know what to do to get Chaud to forgive him for being such an idiot, but he hopes he can figure it out sooner rather than later, because this silent treatment is killing him.
"Are you okay?"
Lan startles, jerking his head around to look at Maylu. She's sitting next to him, giving him a worried look. He can see Tory and Mr. Higsby on the other aisle, but they're too wrapped up in their own conversation to take any notice of Lan and Maylu.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Lan says.
Maylu doesn't look convinced. "You've been acting weird for a while now," she comments. "Ever since you got your new PET, actually."
Lan winces at the reminder. "Sorry," he mutters. It feels like he's done nothing but apologise over the last few days.
"You were acting all confident and stuff, and then suddenly you just stopped," Maylu goes on. "And now you're just . . . miserable." She leans a little closer. "I know you got a message from Chaud about an attack from Nebula. Did . . . did something happen?"
"Kinda," Lan says. He sighs and decides to explain what happened.
Maylu listens quietly, not interrupting, even when he tells her how Chaud and Raoul tricked him. MegaMan had been in on it as well - Lan had been hurt at first, to discover that his best friend and NetNavi had helped trick him like that, but now that he's had time to think about it, he realises MegaMan probably thought he didn't have any other option.
They were all worried about him. Because Lan let his new power go to his head, and if he'd carried on like that, he might've gotten into serious trouble.
But that's not all - and Lan is still kicking himself for not realising it sooner. He'd been treating Chaud like dirt the whole time, and it had taken Arcadia getting angry and snapping at him to make him realise what he did wrong. He still feels ashamed of himself, even more so when he remembers how he'd almost hit Chaud, twice.
How could he have gotten so overconfident and so blind that he'd almost hit Chaud? Lan's an absolute idiot, and that's why he understands Chaud's reasons for not wanting to talk to him anymore. He's still miserable because he wants to talk to Chaud again, to apologise properly, but he can't do that if Chaud won't even acknowledge him beyond just giving him the occasional flat stare.
"That . . . doesn't sound good," Maylu says, after Lan finishes explaining things.
"It's horrible," Lan sighs. "I was such a jerk to him, and I didn't even realise until Arcadia told me. What kind of friend am I? And now Chaud doesn't wanna talk to me."
"He'll come around eventually," Maylu reassures him.
"What do I do?" Lan wonders despairingly, burying his face in his hands. "I've tried saying sorry, but he just ignores me!"
"Maybe that's it," Maylu says. Lan glances up at her questioningly, and she shrugs. "Okay, try this - if Chaud's having a panic attack or something, what do you normally do? Do you force him to calm down?"
"Of course not," Lan replies, staring at her incredulously. "I wait for him to calm down on his own and then-" He pauses. " . . . Oh."
"There you go." Maylu grins at him. "Just wait for Chaud to come to you, and then you can talk things out. You won't get anywhere trying to force him to do anything. He's more stubborn than you are, remember."
"More stubborn than you, too," Lan jokes weakly. "When did you get so wise?"
"Well, someone's gotta be the voice of reason when you and Chaud are being stubborn idiots," Maylu retorts cheerfully. "Hey, after you and Chaud talk things out, how about you take him somewhere? Like an apology trip or something." She glances past Lan, looking out the window. "Oh, you could take him to Shiisaa Island! Who doesn't love a tropical island?"
"He'd hate every second of it," Lan says, wincing.
Maylu looks puzzled. "Why would he hate it?"
"He doesn't like water," Lan explains. "Like, at all."
"He's basically a cat in a human body," MegaMan speaks up. "And most cats hate water."
"If Chaud doesn't like water," Maylu begins, "how do you get him to have a bath?"
Lan slumps in his seat. "With extreme difficulty," he mutters. "Mom usually bribes him with noodles or something, but she wasn't around last time it was bath time for him - so me and Dad had to drag him into the bathroom and force him into the water."
"He was hissing the entire time," MegaMan adds, sounding far too amused. "I'm pretty sure the neighbours thought Lan and Dad were trying to fight a rattlesnake or something."
"That sounds . . . fun," Maylu says hesitantly.
"He tried to bite me," Lan mutters, slumping even lower. "You never remember how sharp his teeth are until he's trying to rip open your skin or something."
"Okay, so, don't take him to Shiisaa Island," Maylu decides. "How about an amusement park? I know you and Chisao are planning on going to that cat-themed one after school ends for summer."
"That'd be way too loud for him." Lan's almost sad to have to refuse that, because an amusement park would be the best place to take someone as an apology - except Chaud hates loud sounds, and he'd probably panic if he was surrounded by a massive crowd.
But that does give him an idea. Chaud wouldn't like an amusement park, but he does like going to the arcade - and he loves games. There's a tower that opened up recently, just a few weeks ago, and it has several floors' worth of arcade games. From what Lan knows about it, there's a few cafes and eateries that're really good, and the top floors are observation decks.
Lan grins to himself. Yeah, that's definitely a good idea - Chaud would love to check out something like that.
"You have an idea?" Maylu asks curiously, seeing his change of expression.
"Yep!" Lan cheerfully exclaims, feeling more energetic than he has been for the past few days. "You know that tower that opened up a few weeks ago? The one with all the arcades and stuff? I think it's called DenTech Tower or something."
"Oh, you're gonna take him there?" Maylu looks delighted. "That's a great idea! But . . ." She suddenly seems hesitant. "If Chaud wouldn't like going to an amusement park because it's too loud, wouldn't taking him to an arcade be the same?"
"He's fine with our normal arcade," Lan points out. "And if the noise gets too much for him, we can go somewhere quieter, like the observation decks on the top floors. He likes exploring the city, so he'd definitely enjoy that."
Maylu claps. "There you go, then!" she exclaims. "You've gotta wait for him to come to you, remember."
"Yeah," Lan agrees. "I think I was actually pushing him away, even though I was trying to apologise. Guess I need to learn some patience."
"You're the one who knows him best, aside from . . . Arcadia," Maylu says. She hesitates a little before she mentions Arcadia, a telling sign that she'd been about to say ProtoMan and Arcadia. It's a sad reminder, but she pushes past it determinedly. "And he listens to you, even when he's being stubborn. You guys are so close, I know you'll figure this out."
"Thanks, Maylu," Lan says, smiling at her. "You're a good friend. You know, when you're not being a-"
"Alright, don't ruin it," Maylu warns him, giving his shoulder a light shove.
Lan laughs and settles back into his seat, feeling lighter than he has for the past few days.
He takes heed of Maylu's advice, and doesn't try to force Chaud to talk to him. He waits, as patiently as he's capable of, and lets Chaud make the first move.
In the meantime, school ends for the term - and Lan suddenly has the entire summer vacation stretching out ahead of him. At the very least, this gives him more time to fight Nebula. He hadn't exactly enjoying occasionally skipping school to do an urgent Net Saver mission, because he always got in trouble with Ms. Mari the next time he saw her in class.
He and Chisao head out to that cat-themed amusement park he'd told Maylu about. They have an awesome time - and Lan can't help but think that, if Chaud was okay with crowds and loud noises, he'd probably love the amusement park. Lan makes sure to grab an extra pair of cat ears for him; maybe he can't give them to Chaud directly, not right now, but he can always leave them on Chaud's desk in his bedroom.
The train ride back to DenTech turns out to be a whole . . . situation. SparkMan takes over the train and tries to make it crash after attaching an oil car to the end, and Lan has to fight his way through the train to get to the front. It's not easy, and at one point, Lan actually has to climb up on top of the train, because the way forward was blocked.
He discovers that Sal and WoodMan are helping out, too. Sal somehow managed to jack WoodMan into the runaway train - Lan can't help but be impressed, because she wasn't even onboard the train like he was, so she must have really good aim if she managed to get WoodMan into the train's network.
MegaMan and WoodMan work together to take down SparkMan, though WoodMan gets injured when he protects MegaMan from an attack - and then MegaMan winds up getting Wood Soul out of the battle, giving him a much-needed boost in power to finally delete SparkMan. That's one less Darkloid for Nebula to throw at them, though Lan's not sure how many are left. The number can't be very high, because he hasn't seen any new Darkloids recently.
Unfortunately, after the battle is over and SparkMan has been deleted, Lan thanks Sal for her and WoodMan's help . . . and he and Chisao get on the wrong train. They end up right back at the amusement park, but whatever. They get to enjoy it a second time.
Mom and Dad aren't really too happy when he finally comes back, far after his bedtime. They're only a little annoyed, because he wasn't in any danger (at least not after the battle, anyway), but they make him promise to tell them if he's ever going to be out longer than he'd originally planned. He can understand that; Chaud's already been hurt enough, and they're probably worried that something might happen to Lan, too.
Chaud's hanging around downstairs, so Lan quickly heads upstairs and places the cat ears on Chaud's desk before heading back down. Chaud doesn't say anything, but the next day, Lan sees him wearing the ears and letting Ragdoll bat at them curiously, so he takes that as a win - and a sign that Chaud might finally be getting ready to talk to him.
He turns out to be right. A few hours later, he's trying to work through some of his homework for the summer. A knock on his bedroom door distracts him.
"Come in," Lan calls absently.
The door opens, and Lan catches a flash of white hair out of the corner of his eye. Before he can even register that, Ragdoll jumps up onto his desk and sits down on his keyboard.
"No-no-no," Lan quickly says, trying to tug Ragdoll off. "Get off, c'mon, you're pressing the keys . . ."
Ragdoll just purrs at him and keeps sitting on his keyboard. Lan despairs at the thought of trying to fix the damage Chaud's giant cat has done to his homework - he can see a mountain of random letters and numbers in the document, and hopes that just pressing undo will be enough to get rid of it all.
Chaud comes over, mercifully, and manages to lead Ragdoll off Lan's keyboard with one of his catnip sticks. Lan freezes for a moment when he sees Chaud, but Chaud seems to be determined not to react, and he doesn't look at Lan until he's sitting on his bed, with Ragdoll chewing on the stick beside him.
Lan turns in his seat and looks back at Chaud. For several moments, there's just silence.
And then Chaud breaks it.
"You weren't . . . being n-nice," he says. Lan winces, but Chaud has only just started talking. "I ignored you 'cus of that. Wasn't . . . wasn't punishing." He pauses for a moment, and then corrects himself. "No, I was. Kinda petty. But . . . I was also . . . waiting. Until I wasn't angry. Then we could talk properly. S-so, um . . . sorry I ignored you."
"I'm sorry I was a jerk," Lan replies vehemently. "I . . . I should've realised what I was doing. I should've known what I did wrong without needing people to point it out to me. I am so sorry for what I did."
"Me too," Chaud says faintly.
They fall into a slightly awkward silence, which is only broken by the faint sound of Ragdoll chewing on the catnip stick and his loud purring. It's a good filler, and it helps to make the silence less awkward - which might be why Chaud brought Ragdoll with him, now that Lan thinks about it.
He remembers his conversation with Maylu, a few days ago on that plane. She'd suggested waiting for Chaud to come to him - and he has, thankfully. And she'd also suggested taking Chaud somewhere, like an apology trip. Now that they're talking again, Lan's got the perfect opportunity to bring it up.
"Do you wanna go somewhere?" Lan blurts out. Chaud blinks at him, and Lan carries on almost desperately. "I-I mean, um. Not right now. Maybe tomorrow, or the next day, or something. I, um. I know this cool place, it's got a bunch of floors with arcade games, and there's an observation deck . . ."
"Are you trying to bribe me?" Chaud asks.
Lan's eyes widen. "N-no!" he exclaims. "I wasn't- I didn't mean- I wasn't trying to-"
He breaks off when he sees the amused gleam in Chaud's eyes.
"No," Lan says, slumping out of sheer gratefulness. If Chaud's joking around like this, maybe he really has forgiven Lan. "I'm not bribing you. It's . . . kinda like an apology trip? We don't have to go if you don't want to-"
"I want to," Chaud says quietly. Lan stares at him, feeling hope flaring in his chest, even as Chaud ducks his head in embarrassment. "Um . . . it s-sounds fun. Wanna go. With you."
Lan can't help but grin. "Okay," he says, just barely containing his excitement. "When do you wanna go? Tomorrow?"
"N-not tomorrow," Chaud mumbles, fiddling with his fingers. "Can . . . mm . . . th-the day after?"
"That's fine," Lan agrees. He's not going to force Chaud to go tomorrow - they have the entire summer vacation, after all. And he doesn't want to accidentally push Chaud away by insisting on going sooner rather than later.
This is . . . this is progress. They're not totally okay, not yet, but at least they're okay enough to talk to each other.
That's enough for now. And hopefully this apology trip will help.