Chapter 10: Understanding is Strange

An empty bowl to the left and an empty bowl to the right, Bass stared at them feeling a little blank from the aftermath of pouring warm soup down his throat. That and the fullness of his stomach from said food was enough to make him feel like he wanted to rest again and possibly take another nap. It just needed a nice slice of bread or toast and it would have been near perfect to Bass. Had it not been for seeing Dr. Light's hands move past in front of him sweeping up the empty bowls, he would have just about leaned his eyes shut and sat for a little longer. That one thing caught his eye after he heard the small clatter of the spoon from what was, at a point in time, his soup bowl. He had to spring back into reality and tried to use his brain for a second before he would be gone like the wind in a relaxing food coma. "Hey, you got that there?" Bass had to rub his eyes to help regain more feeling once the rest of his brain started communicating with each other to interact with outside objects and factors again. "Oh no, I'm quite good. Thank you though." Light appreciated it, but acting like his polite self of course he declined any help as usual. It wasn't to say Light was a people pleaser per se, he just generated a certain thing about him. He was like this when Bass first saw him(or more accurately when he first had to stay with them for a short duration be it due to Wily's plans or otherwise), and he did the same sort of routine with the past dinner plates, cups, and bowls, and he always had the most genuine movements about them. Whatever it was, the Light doctor had such an odd, feel-good energy around him that he never faded, never ceased, and never seemed like it had a starting point; as if he always just had this presence of some kind that orbited with him that also affected anyone and anything who happened to be grabbed into its gravitational pull. And only some really had the right properties to not be affected at all and drift off from the literal light that seemed to radiate off of Light. One of those feeling a little like Bass' creator may or may not had been one of them.

There it was. The only bad thing with noticing his brain activity kicking back on was that some of his brain activity would soon stop dead in its tracks from overthinking. God. Freaking. Damn. It. He's said that phrase so much to himself that he hates even thinking about it. It wasn't like Bass didn't have a lot to honestly think and worry about, but who exactly said that it was fun to do that kind of thing? No one. And that's why Bass hates it to the very core. He's been pretty done with thinking, processing, and making any sort of progress in his head in general. But at the same time he didn't have time for stopping that, which wasn't really helping with all else he needed to think of either! Those small worries about worrying and thinking adding onto more thinking and layers and layers of the cycle repeating over and over again like a constantly updated piece of encrypted text-! Bass wasn't winning this anytime soon, not this battle at least. People such as parents usually tell their kids to go think about what they had done when they go against the rules, but he's made himself a separate part from the eye of judgement. The eye of judgement being his father-figure creator. He couldn't exactly have any enforcement other than his own tell himself to do that now that he'd made a broken relationship between him and that certain governing eye of Wily. The fact that he ran away; became a renegade from the law of his maker in attempt to be independent of something he didn't like. Sure Bass really had the conflicting emotions of knowing what he, himself, had done, thought, believed, and so much more before one climactic day, but what does he do past that point even if it's true that his creator was corrupted or wrong? Severely wrong especially. Was this karma? Or was Bass just this unlucky to be in this morally grey predicament? Whatever the case, neither of these ideas sounded right, so Bass decided to take a look at the reality outside of his head again to see what was about to happen next.

He had done this before, looking away from his thoughts hoping that new information would seek in elsehow, but it's never made a dent in his recently impossible-to-grasp dilemma, so what good would it do this time? Nonetheless, he did it anyways. His retinas felt like they were readjusting after staring blankly from his short deep thought, blinked a couple of times, and immediately turned his head to the right, left hand pushing on chin and right hand positioned near the center of his chest, as he stretched his right shoulder out forward with his head slightly twisting backwards until it couldn't anymore to pop a kink that developed in his neck after it was hunched over for a minute during his deep thinking. After a distinct click in his neck, his eyes focused on the part of the kitchen facing his shoulder and head. The plain, wooden cabinets that sat overhead of the countertop and painted-white lower cabinets felt so much more rural that anything like Wily's. Everything about the Lights just seemed a lot more rural and calm than anything at Wily's: being just outside of the city, having a large yard that looked like a pain to have to cut, the architecture style and the rest of it all felt so much more like a place where no matter if there was company or not, a comfortable silence could always be played out with an eventual feeling of sleepiness. Maybe that was another reason why Bass felt like he could fall asleep after his soup and salad.

Before he could almost dive back into his moral challenges about Wily, Bass' eyes were caught onto something else. Roll was still looking at him like she was earlier. Either she was just staring at him the entire time or she stopped and began doing it again not too long ago, and she kept that same look of intense curiosity as before so it seems like it was the latter. She must have been trying to keep it in secret this time judging by her next notion. Bass couldn't tell if she just didn't notice him catch her earlier or if she just realized how weird it was to stare at another person, but she swiped her vision away from his to go help Dr. Light with the dishes, probably in attempt of covering up what she did in the same way a little kid would, but Dr. Light politely declined. Of course he did; he's practically a saint, who would Dr. Light let help him with anything if he was as nice as he was?

"Oh- maybe that wasn't the best question to ask myself," Bass whispered while putting his head down on the table with his hands wrapped in each other's grip across his forehead. This damn motif about comparing Light and Wily were everywhere, and the frustration from it was at least five times greater than the reoccurrence. If he had the option to, he would like to back track on it all and keep this weird fever dream of a scenario from happening. Poor Roll, poor Light, poor Mega Man, and not trying to be selfish or anything, but Bass had some sympathy for his own mental health with what was going on with it at the moment just as much.

"Shit." Bass pulled his hands down to slam on his thigh as to avoid the sound it would have otherwise caused on the table while whipping his head up at the same time with his near-silent curse. Even with lack of noise, it brought a bit of attention to him regardless. Only one or two heads actually fully turned, but it was safe to say that it was noticed by everyone. Bass didn't want to feel anything anymore, especially embarrassment, so his immediate decision was to go back to his room.

Attention in the context of what made him want to temporarily shut the world off so he could rewrite everything was the last thing he wanted since that kind of thing felt like it would only make things worse. He knew people like Light wouldn't follow him and ask about it because he's literally the most mature living thing in the household, but what about another like Rock or Roll? They were naturally very curious in their personalities; would they be asking all kinds of questions or even just a simple "what's going on?" Not like that's a bad trait, but Bass didn't want anything to do with even reiterating the past few events the more and more he realized how much he screwed up. And why the fuck did he do it? Did he really put actions forward inspired by a few song lyrics? It's not even like those songs held much to him, not after what he did and having reality hit him with what he did. He didn't just disobey his maker, he fucking ran away with the passion to tell him to screw himself in the fine print. There were plenty of stories in books and literature that say how the best way to fix this was to go back home and see how much a parent missed their kid, but this problem couldn't be dealt with so easily. The decision he made is the decision Wily would probably forever have imprinted on his brain, so he wouldn't want to try sitting down and holding a conversation about misunderstandings or any similar solution because this kind of problem was virtually unsolvable. Has Bass ever tried staring at a glass of water long enough hoping that it would turn into soda? Nope, and that's because trying to get soda that way was not only the most stupid way that Bass could think of, but also because the fact that he could not change the chemical makeup of H2O into a sugary, tooth-rotting beverage could never be fixed. But this was so much more different from a dumb metaphor that Bass could have thought through better, this was a matter of being able to have some resemblance of a healthy relationship with Wily, even if it wasn't too healthy beforehand. Whether it was or not, the fact that the matter was as untouchable as the ability to change chemistry at will... it's probably more the same as a problem with no solution. If a mathematical expression ended with 4≠5, it's answer would be "no solution" in a big square box. What if this problem also ended with "no solution?" It was a simple and realistic answer, but it just couldn't be. Bass wouldn't want to sound dramatic, but he just couldn't have that be it. There had to be another way, right? If this was a problem with no solution, then he's absolutely fucked. There's no sugar-coating it. There's no way he could go on with a very normal life without this being resolved. As much as he knows that if he dared face Wily again he would be blasted away at supersonic speeds away, he wanted to find some way to dig like a mole between all barriers and try to make things better, maybe even better than they were before at Wily's.

But where the hell did that all come from? The song lyrics meant something, sure, but those describable phenomena were all short-lasted. One quick moment and no more did they last in his psyche unless something brought them up again. What did all of this to him? Him and his poor psyche? He knew earlier he was coming to some conclusions that- No! There had to be a different way than that. He considered it for just as long as the song lyrics and no more. He thought about this other idea for one second and no more. And no more... He didn't want to consider it anymore, it just stirred all kinds of weird inside of Bass even trying to ignore it. There had to be something he could do, he didn't want to be empty all the time wondering how to fix his damned choices.

To be honest, with as many realizations as he's felt like he's had, none of them have pinpointed anything. They all started from the same trunk and then branched off until they grew more and more fractal that their twigs had spun too far away from the main tree, and nothing had felt like enlightenment enough to even come close to tracing down to the roots.

Has he already asked himself why emotions had to be such a pain in the ass?

And to be honest again, was his master maybe a pretty big bastard in the sense of morals? Yes. Did he feel any better? No. Not just no, but hell no. There were so many loose ends that couldn't even come close to connected. If anything, these last few days were probably the most in-touch Bass had ever been with feelings and emotions and other related things, but it was all so much. Too much for him to handle, too much of a shock for him — in fact, so much of a shock for him that he doesn't even know what's been bad and good decisions of his recently. He's felt like he made some sort of poor deal with a loan shark that's put him in worse situation after worse situation like in a movie. Sleep seemed like a good option, if not for the fact that he just came out of a long nap not too long ago. Maybe he should see how the other Light members were doing at that time. After all, a lot had happened recently, and while they weren't there for the actual experience of it, they know how much had just happened in such a short amount of time. Deaths, trauma, dreams, and fucking resurrections somehow? What chances were there in all of the many realities for that thing to even happen? Anyways, perhaps he should just wait and see who would come down the hallway before Bass besides to enter into his room, or more properly their spare bedroom. Bass stopped walking at the corner of the spare room's door frame just at the end of the hallway, marking his boot right on the slightly indented carpet that was deepening to properly connect with the white wall trimming that, in absolute seriousness, Bass couldn't really believe that he could tell was white. It was pretty dark in the hall and it looked like the kitchen light was about to go out, and it was pretty mundane, but seriously, he always wondered, how did little things like that work? He heard that human eyes could create some small amount of light just to barely see anything or something like that, and if robots had that, then they obviously knew enough about it to recreate it so well. Why else did everything not look like a blocky pixel mess like any other camera and why didn't those have whatever filters were in their eyes? Maybe it was too expensive or problematic to make it in every camera lens, but robots were pretty widescale at the moment, so why couldn't that?

The walls lit in their blurry dark-blue hues after the kitchen light finally went out. Just looking at the signs of the Light household going into nighttime mode was enough to start making some form of relaxation inside of Bass. It wasn't an actual sense of tiredness, it was just the feeling of being able to stop doing routine schedules for the day and being able to do whatever he wanted after everyone finished their night rituals, even if he didn't really have any normal day-schedules instead of his insanely straining escort earlier. God, that was too crazy. He wished he could say it was over, but it was more of a dip in action if anything. Would Wily send anything over for the pure reasons of what Bass did and maybe try to force him back? Knowing him, most likely not. If it was enough for Wily sending enforcements, he knew it was for any possible interest outside of a better relationship between each other. Wily probably wouldn't even try to send anything for re-capturing Roll and/or others again, it would probably for a different plan entirely, that's how much he likely didn't care. And if he didn't care, then why should Bass? But it just didn't work like that, he was his creator, he had so much influence on him, he was a part of him and he couldn't go on with that fact so simply. Why would someone let something that was a part of them go so simply?

Well, he's had enough. Right now he just wants to know how at least one other person was doing after all that happened. He wanted to see someone else and talk to them. He saw Roll just enter her room across the hall bathroom after washing her hands and Rock was brushing his teeth like he was at the end of any other day. Although, it showed in his eyes and posture that there was a slight collision in normalcy of his mindset. Never had they taken Roll away like that and never would they have expected something as strange as Bass bringing her back. He digresses. He needed to talk to him. He knew Rock's room was right across from his, so he would just wait for him to make his presence there. If Bass had to guess, he probably wanted to talk too. He's got to have all kinds of questions and things to ask about what he did and why he did it, and he really didn't have a sure answer as to why he did everything that he did himself.

Bass looked back down at his buster. This kind of topic with Rock was going to be more weird and strange to bring up than he could ever imagine. How does one start that kind of twisted subject straight out of a fairy tale? Probably just begin it however his instincts tell him to start it, but that's not quite it.

There's always the possibility that he could be overthinking this, but it's pretty tough to not accept the fact that this topic holds everything to be extremely taboo to discuss with, especially when discussing with the brother of the kidnapped person in question. Was this another one of those things where he just has to push through like when he, Roll, and company had gotten out from Wily's? One of those things where due to the existence of both time and-

"Shit I am overthinking!" He whispered the phrase so no one heard him, but he caught himself again. Like he thought earlier, he has had enough with this depressing mood with mind rushes and confusing emotional stress, so it would be best just to see what Rock has to this whole mess(and messed up beyond belief) of a situation. He must be about done with his night routine by then, right? In the bathroom, Bass saw Rock's head and his mess of generic hair lean forward to spit into the sink in front of him. When Wily and Light designed their robots, what was with the theme of anime-looking hair? Roll seems to be the only one besides Light himself who has a normal type of haircut. Maybe it was inspiration from Albert's goofy batarang hair, but who knows.

Getting out of his day-dreaming questions again, Bass saw the Blue Bomber step out from the bathroom right after switching off its light, looking like he had the same sort of intentions for talking as he walked down the relatively short hallway. He looked nervous, like he was having some sort of mixture of not-so-nice emotions conjuring up like Bass was getting a lot of during the past whatever days since Roll was taken by him and Wily. Before Rock could get the chance to, Bass spoke up first. "Hey," he started, "if I had to guess right now, am I the last person you'd like to see in this place?" Bass just stated it flatly and rubbed his eyes. Damn sleepiness was still getting to him even with that long nap. Rock began to respond a little surprised about Bass' words, "w-what? No, I'd never want to just-" "Rock," for God's sake, Rock was too forgiving for his own will, "it's okay if this is hard enough that all of this happened seemingly just to have Roll be brought back here without warning. I don't even want to know what the hell it's like trying to make peace with one of the people involved right after it. Come on, if I'm having my own fucked up time trying to get this all straightened out in my head, I know you got to too. We're not even too sure yet what happens next, I mean I know I can't just stay here forever, and I think that's something that Light wants to talk about." Bass began scratching his head, "I think I remember hearing him say he wanted to talk more about this kind of stuff like that tomorrow, so we'll see what he has to say."

Rock seemed a little more calm hearing what Bass had to say cutting off his response, but Rock was still a little too sugary in the center to have it all be better. He's probably almost traumatized too, not like Roll who probably is, but that had to have been a lot of stress for Rock to work under. He is tough, Bass knew that, but it's so much bitter that really just wraps a pure-sugar inside that is the true essence of Rock. "Goodness," Rock began, "I have to say that I sort of agree that this is pretty weird. It's not very often that... this happens." Rock had a question held in the back of his mouth that he felt he should ask now seeing how similar Bass felt about their predicament, "out of curiosity, why did you bring Roll back anyway?"

With how confusing that was to Bass as well, he just had to reply, "to be quite frank, I really don't know. There's been more weird shit happening with just about everything I used to know about myself a bit more than I'd like. This was one of those things. Now, from what I understand, Circuitry and Flora had told you guys everything on what happened at Wily's?" Rock paused for a second, "y-yeah..." That face he made gave Bass all that he needed to confirm he should go on with his point, "not even right after, just right at the moment of when Wily and I had..." Bass had to pause for himself, "you know what to those two, it all snapped. All of a sudden, just everything in my conscious and subconscious mind was pointing to two main points: shit was wrong, and she needed to get out of there. Her well-being's never been a big concern of mine or anything before, but just then it had and I don't quite know what triggered it... but I think I'd rather know that everyone is physically safe and sound than if I was still over there and... fuck, if Wily hadn't put his DWNs in the locations he put them and you were able to get over there about now or earlier, you would have been the only thing that could have gotten her out of there and not even have those two new ones to come back with ya."

Bass paused for a moment again, this time feeling something kind of close to sentimental and a particular sensitivity around his eyes. Rock, genuinely shocked, pointed out, "are you tearing up?" That was met with a more emotional looking Bass than Rock had ever seen, even if it was just him slightly tearing with most other things normal, including his arms crossed, "so what? Am I not allowed to or something? Of course I am, as I said, I fucking cared about what was going on back there." Rock had to give a pleased smile to being able to see this kind of sight he literally can not trace back to ever seeing once before, "well, I guess It's safe enough for me to say I believe you with what you're saying if it's enough to get you kinda sad like this."

Bass started to give Rock a pissed off look through the small tears in his eyes. "Okay, okay, sorry," Rock was apologizing, "I'm just not used to seeing this side to Bass. Have you been hiding this for all these years or something?" "No," Bass began, "this literally all just started a couple of days ago at the exact time of what I said earlier and I don't know why, if anything I'm just mad about not understanding the haywireyness of my emotions right now. They're almost like they're around the clock in constantly changing shifts and my body doesn't know which one it wants to feel at the moment all the time." "Pfft, that's just called going through changes. As robots we don't exactly go through adolescence, but we do have things somewhat similar to hormonic changes that occur over the process of our mental development even though we're built around general age groups. I guess since you've never ever been like this, maybe it's hit you a little harder than others." Bass looked at him contemplating what he said, getting a chill that turned into a quick shiver from the vent above them activating and landing cool air on where he had been tearing up all the way down his cheeks. "Hormonic- did you mean 'hormonal?' But otherwise, maybe you're right. You make a fair point with why it's so hard to explain." "Yeah, just don't go having them control a lot of what you're doing, sometimes you almost have to fight your way through that kind of stuff and it isn't too fun, but I can't say that it's impossible, just super, super hard. Though, thinking about it, those might already be obvious-" "No, no, you make a fair point there too. I kind of wish you told me that thing of not letting them control what I did earlier though." Rock replied, "to be fair, I don't think that's all of it. You also just had a lot going on outside of what you felt in you, so that probably deserves a little bit of leeway too. I know that for myself this has been a very hectic past few days with having to worry about what you and Wily were possibly doing with Roll and everyone else as hostages, and with what you did and were thinking of doing to get them out of there, you probably have three times the amount of stress that I do."

Bass closed his eyes in slight emotional agreement, though he didn't believe one bit that he had more stress than them, especially considering how he's talking to someone who has the world literally on his shoulders to defeat many prior robot masters, but Rock and the rest of the Lights were always too sweet to begin with, "thank you." "Yeah, no problem Forte." Bass froze with his eyes flinching back open, "the fuck?" Was this thing spreading like a wildfire or something? Do they even know why Roll knew that in the first place? "Rock, you know about that?" "Yeah, Roll asked me if I remembered that. I honestly couldn't think of a time when you referred to yourself by that name, but it was still interesting to hear."

Bass changed how he was leaning on the corner of his door frame to put a little more support on it. This was probably the first actual conversation that he had ever done with Rock before if he had to take a shot in the dark(even if his buster would have provided light). It felt really nice to be so casual for a not-so casual type of topic in talking. He's always talked with the Lights before, but never quite like this. This one was more of a difference of what manners Bass finally chose to use and taking time hearing what Rock said instead of having it be like Rock was talking to a wall. It was like that for maybe all of his conversations before, but never had he felt so... what's the word? Vulnerable... maybe that would be it. Bass had never felt so vulnerable like this before, just like how he felt only a small time ago when he first spoke to Roll after her kidnapping. He probably couldn't even call that a fair comparison since this was the only one of those conversations where it actually felt kind of like bonding.

"If anything's sure enough, you guys have made it a little easier- tonight I mean. Well mainly you probably since I haven't gotten the chance to talk with anyone else yet, but shit my mind's doubts were pretty well let in. I wasn't super certain if I had done more good than bad with what I was doing, but I guess it will go on from this somehow. Don't know how, I just know that it will." Rock responded stretching his arms behind his back and yawning, "that's the magic of communication." Bass was beginning to follow suit with a yawn of his own, "damnit, now you got me doing it." Bass felt his neck looking downward and stretching with his hands intersecting behind, arms pulled almost to the point of having his shoulder blades touching. His yawn was a lot more audible than Rock's, probably meaning that Bass was more tired than him, but with all the sleep he was able to have not too long ago it's hard to tell if that's because of another thing or not.

"Well, better get going to bed then. Don't want'a keep you up too late since you didn't even get the privilege of a nap like I did." Bass turned around and stepped into his, or more properly their bedroom, looking back at Rock with his hand on the door's side to close it soon, "I'll see you in the morning then. Am I going to be helping you with the rest of the robot masters tomorrow or something, or how is this going to work out?" Rock was settling himself in a similar position that Bass was in, just leaning the door enough to make a creak before responding to Bass, "um, I don't know, Dr. Light didn't really talk about that. We can ask him when we wake up as long as I make sure you're up when I am."

"Trust me, I'm still used to getting up early and all that. Probably tomorrow especially with all that I slept earlier an hour or so ago."

"Fair enough, I'll see ya tomorrow Bass." Rock leaned and creaked his door more until it was shut.

"See you Rock." Bass closed his door, leaving only all the groans and creaks that Rock's door made, being much more silent.

Bass quietly made his way to the bed. Even if he was feeling more and more comfortable as the night progressed it still seemed weird trying to call this bed "his," even if he used it before in other times when he was with them. But enough of that subject for now. If he could sleep in it, he's sort of okay with it. He lifted his left hand and the sheets with it to climb into the rather large bed that they had for a guest bedroom. He knew Dr. Light made pretty good money, but holy moly. Were all the bedrooms equipped with queen-sized mattresses? But aside from that Bass also couldn't hold back from the fact that even though he was in here just earlier, he forgot just how freaking fluffy the blanket was. The pillows were nice and squishy, the bed was smooth and soft, but the blanket was probably the warmest and fluffiest part of the whole ordeal. It's such a minor thing, but after doing a lot of brain-hurting thoughts, it was damn relieving to feel the niceness of the bed.

Maybe some good dreams would come to him this time. He thought that this time, without the weird lucid robot ghosts, without the strange nightmare the night before that he probably got as a side-effect of not sleeping normally the last few days, this dream might just be a regular one if he was lucky enough. Maybe after it, things in general will start be regular again. Who knows, perhaps everything will start to slow down and become gradually more normal as time went on from that point and Bass wouldn't have to punch reality in the face from hurting his head so much.

Slowing down... Slowing down...

Bass heard the sound of his door knob. Did Rock forget something or was this the doctor telling him goodnight? Whatever the case it would probably be more polite to respond and turn his head from the pillow. "Yes? Wh-..." It's Roll. Not Light, not Mega Man, but Roll. His eyes weren't even open enough to fully register everything that's around him, but he knows who the only person of the household in red is. What did she want? Was she saying goodnight?

"Um," Bass began, not too sure what was going on, "hello? Whatcha um — " He truly didn't know what to exactly say here. Maybe she was there for an apology of the weird staring? "Whatcha here for?" She was timid, mostly the same as she was at dinner earlier. It was hard to tell if this was just because she was tired and in the late-night brain-awkward-because-it-doesn't-want-to-socialize mood like Bass was or if there was something bugging her all night. God if she's really traumatized like he hoped she wouldn't be...

"Uh," Roll looked down to the floor, very wobbly and even more shaky as she stepped aside to close the door. Her face didn't even look like it was functioning in-sync with her brain, like her mind was too focused on her own world to really care about any basic facial expressions. It wasn't like it had the complete lack of expression, but it looked frozen. Frozen almost like she was contracting every artificial facial muscle in her at once and couldn't budge it from its locked position.

Bass' mind started to wonder off where it was earlier- Nope!

"What's going on? You like you're in a bit of a mental struggle." Son of a schnitzel Scheiße. Maybe Bass could have worded that differently, but that doesn't sound too off from the stereotype of mental stress and angst coming from anything regarding- No! Actually fuck, that stereotype was coming true. He had to at least admit to himself that he was kind of starting to hurt inside because of these god damned feelings that his body decided to start having one day. Maybe in the context of who he might have literally saved it was good, but the other honestly more somewhat selfish side of it... "Well actually, yeah," Roll turned to Bass, her face going from a locked expression... to an embarrassed mess, one that did not help Bass in the slightest, "I had something on my mind." God damned it, it was hard not to associate those words and those looks that say she was hiding something to scenes that Bass had seen in some of the shows Rock watched where the protagonist speaks with the other character and discovers that they had both been fal- No!

No, no, no! He's said this to himself before to get his mind off of the idea, but this is no joke. He is not some random cartoon protagonist. Or anime was it called that Rock watched? Whatever the case, here he has someone in front of him who could have a potential case of post-trauma, and in a time when he absolutely should not, he starts to let his feelings get in the way of some things. Even if those are feelings of... it, he definitely help anything based on that. It wasn't like he had a morally wrong feeling or anything, but it wasn't anything he should act on. He's not even too sure if this is it or not just because it was based on an idea. Bass looked down. He didn't even realize that he was gripping the pillow beneath his head. He also just noticed that his posture was even a little weird and unattended to because of his own nervousness. Instead of one that felt like it could make his body physically uncomfortable for too long by not sitting up properly, Bass tried to swipe away anything unrelated to the real world for the time-being and moved slightly to the center of the headboard side to sit in a criss-cross position. Bass almost had to punch himself to say 'stop being awkward in a likely serious damn situation. What if she was having depressive thoughts? It's not like it was bad for her to but it certainly-certain-as-hell would not help if she found out even a little bit that he thinks he lik- Don't you fucking dare even finish that sentence. Put on your poker face and FUCKING HELP HER.'

"What's on your mind?" Bass tried to find a way to start this politely, "you don't have to say it if it's too hard or anything but-"

"But that would defeat the purpose that I came here," she said with the same embarrassing look, but maybe a little bit more assertive about it than her other words within the last minute. "Can't say you're wrong there..."

The two waited for a minute for who knows what. Bass did his best to keep a neutral stare that left room for Roll to possibly let out any emotions that she had without having to worry about what Bass thought of it. He obviously wasn't too known for any form in the slightest of kindness or anything remotely similar, and his default look on his face always managed to be angry no matter what he did, so hopefully something like this generic look could help a bit. Nothing happened for almost a minute besides the noticeable movement of Roll rocking a degree or more back and forth. This wasn't going anywhere. Bass patted the space next to him, "hey." Silence. She stopped rocking and without much of a second she finally obliged and sat down. More silence. "I don't know if this has anything to do with all the stuff that just happened over not a long period of time at all or not, but if company helps, I'm here."

"No!" She blurted out. "I want to say it, buuuuut..." Her voice gradually went weaker and weaker before trailing off the sentence. Bass wished he could have had something less romantic to say than the 'company' line, but God's honest truth he really wanted to make sure that she understood that she could finally have a different version of Bass that was going to be (for lack of better words) more humane and sensible and finally know what it was like to have problems that he might not ever know instead of focusing on himself. Yes, he had his own stuff that needed to be taken care of, whether it be how the future goes, his relationship with Wily, or other stresses, but Roll had her own things too that needed to be acknowledged. Maybe being a little nice and showing all the proof he could that he had really started to change would be a good start before he goes completely bawling about his problems. He knew he had to get them out at some point, but for the time being, maybe Roll can just have the emotional spot light.

It was probably another minute or so. Specifically another minute or so of Roll being nervously silent and Bass hoping her mind wasn't completely broke. This could have been a sign of some kind for post-trauma, but how would Bass, one who has only recently understood how to do more than shoot something, ever know? From what he knew, he was pretty sure it would actually be the opposite since they wouldn't be used to being in a home-type environment again, so maybe it's not as bad as Bass thinks, but regardless a couple days of what just happened was a lot for only a couple days of what just happened. If he had to guess, Bass was thinking that Roll would have to go to professional help of some kind, despite all the stuff that Rock had already gone through(and unlike him Bass was essentially geared since the day he was activated to just fight). But how would that even work? Do robots have psychiatrists? He doesn't know, after all he had never known about problems with robot PTSD. Or any other type of plausible trauma for that matter. Do they have to go through diagnostics? Appointments? All of the above and more? God he hoped not, that would be too stressful in itself and take too much time. There had to have been an easier way to handle things like that, or else how would Rock be the Light Number that he was without some sort of help with all the battling he did in the beginning of being the opposing force to Wily and others? Whatever the case, Bass wanted to be of assistance with it all. If he was the one to put her where she was, then he wanted to pay back for ever listening to his old man. There was too much of a upbringing in his sudden conscience to not, and with her willingly going to him to say something despite literally everything but pigs flying the last few days, he can't say he felt more than happy to be doing anything for her.

"I... just want to say, that even with everything that happened," she continued in her same breaking voice, "I'm just sort of so thankful that you were able to make it go from worse to... this. I'm not too sure if this scenario is bad or better, but I guess I want to count my blessings here and say thank you so much for bringing me," she covered her face with the front of her dress. That and the increased shaking in her voice made it obvious she wasn't saying exactly what she wanted, "... b-back h-here."

"Hey." Bass took his hand and moved her head. He had it just under her chin because it seemed like the easiest place to try to physically move the path of her eyes without hurting or forcing her too much. Maybe not the best position to casually do, "w-what's going o-on...?" As evident by Bass' stuttering. Gosh, he had to control himself, because he cared for her but- No, he didn't want his mind to even go there; he just had to not do any stupid stuff in terms of acting on whatever instinct inside of him was making him do this. He just had to use self control. Just use self control.

Why did she have to sit in the place she was? She was in the perfect view of the window to have its moonbeams come in and bounce off of her eyes like a thousand little diamond sparkles in a mirror of some kind. To be completely clear about it, this was actually helping in slowing down the world a little bit like Bass wanted. Shit, he desperately needed her to say what she wanted to get off her chest, but until then how could he not get lost in those mirrors for a little bit- No, just no. So much no about it, but damn it was so hard to not admire how adorable it looked. And another note Bass just picked up on was the fact that after a solid minute or more of him blankly staring into her soul like an idiot she, never motioned to get out of the eye-lock that he had made. In fact, the only moment he felt her chin tense in the touch of his hand was when he first brought her attention over to him. Ever since she's been more relaxed into the presence of his fingers on her chin, kind of like her body wasn't responding that they were there anymore and her head just stayed suspended waiting for either one of them to say something.

No, no, no...

God damn. Bad Bass, bad Bass! He couldn't find any breather to stop slapping himself upside the head. Actually, did something happen? His senses were coming back to reality for a short moment again, and... He threw his head backwards a few inches. He wasn't too sure how he neither gave himself whiplash or go falling backwards on his pillow behind him when he motioned away, but more importantly, how in the world did he let his face get closer to hers while he was mentally punching himself a second ago? What the fuck was wrong with him? Not the time or place to ever do that, nor even the time to think about- No, no, no, not even the time to think about thinking about that. Why couldn't he keep himself calmed and controlled, why couldn't he keep his eyes from admiring how fucking cute and soft her face wa- NO!

No.

...

NO.

...

NO!

His face got a little close again. He threw it back more. Why did this have to be a problem with him of all things? This not only helped as much nothing as nothing could get, but how would Roll feel about this if she knew? She must have been pretty terrified by now with all the incomprehensible signals he's likely made.

But she wasn't trying to move away. In fact, her chin was still lacking in the tension that she should have had from all the weird faces Bass may or may not have made and all the other things. If anything, she looked kind of entranced just like Bass was one second before- No. Though to be honest, of course it would be hard for Roll to seem more calm than she may have actually been since all he wanted to do was lean forward, look her in the eyes, say "I l-" Nooope! Seriously, if he was going to have a crisis, why did it have to be so cheesy? What was even going on, it was starting to feel like he was blurring between reality and dream like he did earlier: his brain was overreacting, all of the senses just became waves and waves of random uninterpretable mumbo jumbo that correlated to no actual goal of accomplishing anything, his heart was pumping maybe a thousand or more beats per second to get plasma moving around the body as it went into maximum overdrive, his everything was just completely screwed up and haywire. He couldn't keep track of or focus on anything anymore. He was probably getting tired by the minute as his body managed to overexert itself by just sitting. It felt like Bass was maybe about to get a heart attack, seizure, and stroke all wrapped up in the same deal with the low, low cost of freaking the hell out in front of Roll. He caught himself almost six inches away from her face this time. That was too close. Maybe he's got to find some other way of dealing with this. Like why does he get so bad about it in front of Roll? Understandably all need to face their fears but this wasn't the same thing exactly. With all this overthinking it's been making it seem like he needs to make some type of bold move but what would that mean to her- too close. Almost touched noses that time. When was this going to stop? Should he just tell her that she should leave his room for now or something? Why couldn't he just stop himself from letting his body do most of the acting.

The hell's he doing? Everything's just beginning to become a pastel smudge around him in reality. His head was getting closer, maybe? Wait, did his nose just bump into hers? HIS NOSE JUST FUCKING-

...

... It probably looked and sounded like a grenade detonated nearby, because his vision went extinct and he almost started hearing ringing in his ears. Even though he felt his eyes close, they looked cloudy and white like he just tried standing up too fast or something. His entire body just did nothing and froze like a motion tracker was going to shoot him dead if he moved a inch from breathing. His hand on Roll's chin was now right next to his face... problem being that the hand was still on her chin. His lips felt something warm, his head forcibly tilted and bumped something. If there wasn't enough evidence to prove himself that his face had just collided with hers in some awkward position, then he was the richest person in the world.

He let her face go after a few seconds of some romantic but not-so romantic feeling kiss, leaving both of them to breathe. She was breathing just as heavy as Bass like she held her breath the entire time too from shock. Well, what does he say now after that?

"S... Sorry. I don-"

"No," Roll interrupted. She shifted her position on the bed so she could reach her head high enough to be at full eye-level and moved just a few inches closer, wearing a similar weary look as earlier but with five-percent or ten-percent more confidence. She leaned closer, maybe just more than a whisper, before... "I was actually here for this reason." Then she decided it was her turn to collide heads.

There were nine seconds to this second, more consenting kiss, and the only unpleasant things about it were the abruptness and the small squeak that came from Bass' mouth at first. Otherwise, there were only positive notes to say about the nine seconds that allowed Bass' world to finally start slowing down. Second-one: There was no nose bumping due to the conscious efforts of this one, and neither pair of lips were just stiffly resting on top of each other awkwardly; instead, they were a lot more calm and relaxed and curved forward a small amount to take it in just a tad bit more. Second-two: After closing his eyes and processing what she said, he instantly felt all the stress building on him start to alleviate and dissolve just for the time-being. All things outside of this moment were drained away in his pipes and sent off somewhere else until they decided to show up whenever. This was probably the first time his head really felt so empty, and not out of overwork or boredom, but feeling like no matter what happened here it was all going to be taken care of peacefully and graciously.

Second-three: Along with his lips growing warmer, so did his cheeks and the rest of his body. Roll closed all the remaining space between them and gripped her arms onto his waist likely because her subconscious body just told her to do it. And the same went for Forte. When he felt Roll's warmth all around his torso, he did the same exact action, bringing her even somewhat nearer to him if that was possible. This hug had more than enough warm-coziness that Bass could ask for. Second-four: Bass had to part his mouth from hers to breathe. He made one big breath before immediately going back in. It only took him a brief moment to part and he already knew that he wouldn't be putting a full stop to the kiss with that action, but somehow in the back of his mind for the short bit that he wasn't touching her lips, he immediately began missing it. Without any of his control he was missing it even if it was just for a very, very short time. What kind of spell did Roll put on him that made him feel minutes' worth of regret in one measurement of a nanosecond? Bass had never tasted lips sweeter than strawberries before, all he knew was from whatever types of emphasis he saw on the movies and shows that the Lights always had on by chance. He never really watched any TV or anything with Wily. Not too sure if that's kind of a shame or if he should be ashamed that none of the movies really said anything about a kiss being like this. No wonder they always zoomed in on the moments when they can't get their faces off of each other. He always used to think that kind of mushy stuff was so stupid. Essentially the kind of mindset that says, "why do this when you can do something else like preparing for a problem or being productive?" What a smartass way of thinking. What an ignorant and selfish way of thinking. Yes, there were other things that could be done if somebody were to use up one minute to start a picture, or write a word, or read a book rather than kiss. But it wasn't that simple. Any sort of claim that he might have thought or made before saying that this and other similar things were bad was bullshit. Don't edgy kids in real life get looked at as an asshole for saying that kind of stuff like they're a demigod opening up the meaning of life? He never understood it, he just took word-of-mouth, thought up things, and assumed he had everything figured out. That was his classical way of thinking, but like quantum mechanics he had to resort to a different way of thinking. A way that understood through experience that what he was doing wasn't stupid, it just worked. This was something telling him to hold on, like some sort of binding was being done with their lips. Maybe this was how it always is...

Second-five: Time was getting slower and slower. All of Bass' thoughts and probably Roll's too had gone completely numb. All rational thought, all irrational thought, any kind of process with their artificial neurons or whatever was built inside their heads were dimmed way down and just told the rest of their systems to keep doing what was happening. Second-six: This was it. Complete bliss. This feeling had no negative outcome of it to Bass' mind. How rare was that? Even with the simplest of things, nothing had ever had as much near-perfection as this. Sitting in bed before sleeping, thinking about all kinds of different things, like when he used to fantasize about helping Wily get even with Rock, or just having random questions pop up like 'what could happen if blablabla?' Even those had no perfect quality. All his brain was saying was reward, reward, reward.

Second-seven: Bass let out a slight groan that was maybe just about a couple decibels. Not even much like a groan, more like a sigh letting out all the energy that he felt building up inside himself without making any extra moves on the situation. Whatever it was, it felt just as natural as the previous parts of this kiss. How did they suddenly become so comfortable with this? They had only just mutually agreed about how they were feeling no more than a few seconds ago and now their first mutual kiss has become the most comfortable thing in the world to them? They weren't doing anything weird, strange, or too extreme for a first one, but Bass could almost willingly melt into Roll's arms. He already was probably. The longer their lips touched the more his brain was just separating from the rest of reality to focus on what they were doing. It was very strange, but nothing about it even felt close to wrong. Second-eight: Bass felt like he was sitting forever. How many years would he look like he'd aged when he looks into the mirror? How was this only lasting for such a short span of time? Maybe that was another one of the things with it. Besides the focal point that brings all his attention from anything else, it was like being brought to a clearer world. Maybe a bit of an over-exaggeration, but it in his mind it was like being brought more and more away from reality and more and more close to a reality with different rules, different physics, different time, and everything just felt warm. Like some sort of heaven. God how weak in his heart was Roll making him?

Second-nine: Bass was making one last impression on this. He was starting to run out of air again and knew that maybe the next pause would be the end for this moment, and right before so he moved his head forward. He applied more pressure onto her lips and made her voice sound like she jumped a little bit, but she settled. He had no rhyme or reason for it, but it just came as instinct again. He just wanted to kiss her harder, and harder, and harder, and harder now that's he gotten a small sampling of what it's like. It was like a substitute. He wanted to wrap his lips fully around hers with all the intensity that he could ask for, but he wasn't that bold to try until who knows how much later and he was too scared. Even though it'd be long before he adds anything to it, he hoped that he'll get to have a lot more meaningful small moments like this. Bass couldn't breathe, and it was choice between instinctual survival and instinctual want, and of course he chose the instinctual survival. He let go...

The real world was back. Time was back. It all went to normal the same time as he opened his eyes. He was breathing heavy again and so was she. To put a pause on the whole thing, what happened? What did this make of them? Were they a thing now to put it simply? As much as Bass liked the idea, he didn't even know what went on in a thing. Whatever the case, Bass had all the intention of having the best of things.

"Roll," he stopped to get more air in his system, "I don't know how but I've fallen for you a little too damn hard a little too damn fast over the past couple days and I want to have more than just this one kiss. I want to protect you from Wily and any other forces and make sure your mentality doesn't get fucked up by his doings that you had to see. I want us to know each other better as time goes on so we can better help and understand each other. I might be opening up a little too fast but God I needed to say this."

Roll cupped his cheek, "Bass, I don't exactly understand this all either, but I kind of feel the same if you can't tell." She looked with her head turning a bit more, "and m-may I... try that again?"

"Sure."

And that's all it took to make Bass' heart explode again. One more time for closing-in lips and his insides were flowering. Two seconds of flowering and then two seconds of staring at each other. "And uh, Bass, for how brutal you used to be, that was weirdly romantic of you to say. But you don't always have to be like that. Craziness is all that's been going on around us and I don't want whatever this is to be ruined by more weirdness. Maybe try to just see how this all flows?"

What the...

After all that she's had happen right before her, she's able to muster up that? How is her brain stable? "That might have been the most mature thing you said so far Roll. You ready to go back to your room?"

"Huh?" She gave a pretty questionable look to an equally questionable question. Ready to go back to your room?

"Wait, no! Not like that I mean as in bringing you back over there so we can both go to sleep in our own respective beds! Don't murder me!"

"..." She just kept looking on in confusion, but seemed to finally trust him. "Maybe I should have taken back that 'romantic' comment."

"Yes, yes you should have."

She giggled. To flex more on how she was doing, she giggled, and it sounded adorable. It sounded normal. Bass was pretty jealous.

"Come on," Bass lifted himself from the bed and onto the floor, "let's go." Roll pushed herself off with him and went to the door. A few steps to the door was calculating into a few more steps to sleepiness. By the time he got to the door, he was almost ready to fall back onto his sheets. He started smiling. Her cuteness and impressive lips left quite a something, whatever it was. She followed him out after he turned open the door knob. He began letting his legs just do the work hoping he didn't bump into anything while his eyelids were shutting down. A few more steps? Maybe...

He opened up his eyes to check and it turned out to be time to keep them up. He was two feet to the right away from her stopping point. One 90-degree turn and one more step and there they were. "Alright, good night Bass. I'll see ya tomorrow, and thank you." "No, thank you. That was amazing." She opened her door, looking out a little embarrassed, "yeah, I didn't even think I would get that far. It turned out to be a lot easier than I was anticipating. Thanks for thinking it was amazing, but if it weren't for your weird boldness I don't think I would have done that."

"Well I'm glad..." He kept focus on Roll's smirk and her closing door. She said to him, "good night," and before he could let her seal that door... — "Wait!" — ... He had to add something else. "Roll, what I said earlier, I meant it all. I really want to protect you whatever it means." Her smirk turned more embarrassed. She let out a simple "thanks," and followed her pupils to the side without moving her face, "can I tell you something else?" "Sure," Bass allowed. "Is it too early to say that I think I love you?" Her face was returning to the looks she was making when she first entered his bedroom just a few minutes before. And Bass was too. "Um, um... I don't know," and of course he didn't. He didn't know why he wanted her in the first place so why would he know if this was something to last or not? Bass wanted it to last at least. "If we're lucky enough to keep this going for a while, maybe I should say that I love you too..." He bit his lip in frustration. Meanwhile she replied, "yeah, we'll see what the future holds I guess, but I'd like to keep it for a lot longer-" "Me too," Bass quit his lip biting, but still managed to look like he was about to have a nervous breakdown. "Hmm," Roll commented, "I'm still trying to get used to seeing you get so emotional." "Yeah..." Roll kept her door open for a moment longer before saying, "well, see ya in the morning." And shut, there it was.

Bass raced back to his room. He closed the door, sat against it, and pushed his fingers to his forehead. "What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck." He could feel his face burn like the Lights' fireplace. "Did that really just happen? Did I do that? Did I say that? How did all that happen shortly after running away from Wily, what the fuck?!" He slowly pulled himself up. "I mean a good thing yeah, but so much went down in so little time." He walked to his bed. "What do I do tomorrow? Hold hands? Kiss her again? Go on a-" He stopped himself. "No, the best thing to do is probably just wait and see how it plays out naturally. I've never really done this before, but that's what these are about I think, right?" He flopped down onto his fitted sheet. "I don't know anymore. I mean I want to be in a thing with her but still, it's all kinds of weird." He covered himself up with his blankets, remembering how sleepy he started to feel. "It might be pretty nice." As he was closing his eyes, he pulled one of his pillows from being under his head to being flat against his face. He was hugging it. "Maybe sometime we can cuddle for a little bit." He buried his face into the snug pillow case, only for the sound of the incoming blast from Wily's next attack to soar through the air and shine in the window, appearing to be a missile, behind where Bass turned around to see, getting ready to jump out of his bed and...

It was all his imagination. "Shit." Okay, so as much as he wanted Roll, he was still afraid. His blood was pumping in fear and surprise when his mind decided to be a jerk and pull that move on him. "Goddamn. I may have gotten Roll out, but at what fucking cost." He flopped back onto his bed. "Eh. Knowing Wily he might or he might not show up soon. I guess that unexpected variable where I just got to see how it goes might apply to this too," he concluded. "I'm getting some shuteye." He lazily brought the pillow back to his face and went to sleep, feeling just slightly on edge the whole minute it took him to. Tomorrow is going to be a new day, and so will the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and no one will probably know what to expect. Yes, he did kind of realize and understand what was going on, but what brand new cans of worms is he going to open next because of it? He can only hope for not anymore extreme surprises and mind-bending weirdness. He'll have to see. He'll have to see...

A/N: Wow. Gosh dang. I was just finishing this up and saw how many of my docs for the previous chapters had expired in the time it took for me to write this. I'm so shocked. Man, I almost wish RocketMan was a separate entity from my own so that this could have been done sooner while I did my other stuff. But then I wouldn't ever actually experience the writing and that would make me sad :(

So no empty promises. Because what is done cannot be undone and what happens in the future I don't know. I'm not a big guy in the fanfic writing world or anything but it still feels so wrong to have such a drawn-out thingy like this. ^_^; Like dang I got some other stories that I feel more passionate about than this and I hope this never happens with those other ones but we shall see bros and not-bros. Let's hope for the best, not just with me but also for you guys out there who are having the same kind of thing as me. I mean, what can I say, I'm sorry? Like, I literally last posted a chapter back when I was about to start my school year. That was about half a year ago. What kind of organization is that? Darn diddly bad organization that's what. I once saw this YouTube notification come in the other day that said "What if You Could Project Your Imagination on a Screen?" I never watched it, but I was like, "huh, yeah, that would be pretty cool." And that was a friendly reminder to me that I don't have all the time in the world and that no matter what excuses I got I just need to get things done. Yes, I get my school work done and everything but what about my other stuff? Stuff like this that I couldn't be more than thankful for existing. I can get up in the morning and start on my school things and the other necessities, but what about those things that keep the fire in me burning to do that stuff? Writing and other things are good quality coal and I need to mine it a bit more. A lot easier said than done but I want to see it done. And that goes for you guys too. Remember that time is the very limited and life is not a friendly loan shark willing to give you more of it. You got to do what you want to do.

But enough rambling aside, y'all have a good dayo, and let's see how you guys like my next story. Peace out.

End of A/N.