Chapter 78
"Whoo! No school tomorrow!" Neptune yells out at the top of her lungs, probably disturbing everyone in the complex. But does that matter to her? Of course it doesn't, it's Neptune after all. When has anyone's peace of mind ever been her concern?
"You can't be that loud Neptune, other people live here too." Nepgear tries to calm her sister down. Not sure how well that'll work considering how Neptune gets when she's excited.
"Sorry Nep jr., I guess I got a little carried away there huh?" Surprisingly it worked pretty well, by Neptune's standards that is. I'll admit she's grown on me a little bit, but I'll never tell anyone that. Not even Nepgear.
"Considering what we've all been through, I don't blame her though. The more days we have to rest the better." I speak up to the purple duet in front of me. School is a way to pass time until our next fights that's a given. It just so happens to be a slow and boring way to pass the time.
"That's true, how are you feeling by the way? Nepgear puts a hand on my shoulder and tries to gauge me. Probably should've mentioned that after the second Bound Deity was defeated, my body was incredibly sore to the point where I could barely move. We knew this would happen, we just didn't think it'd be this bad. And to top it off I would've been recovered already if it wasn't for Neptune and that damn nurse outfit of hers.
I put one of my hands over hers and straighten my back. "I think I'm mostly good. I've had about a week to recover, and I can walk around for the most part." I still can't believe that one fight messed me up this badly, even the one I lost with him didn't really mess me up that much in the end. Although, I wasn't the only one, Noire was pretty messed up too. It must've been from exerting her share energy to achieve Next Form.
Not to mention, she had better nurses than me, being Uni and Martin. Nepgear's fine as a nurse, she's just really nervous when it comes to taking care of people. And Neptune? Well, I think we all know how that song and dance goes.
"I'll admit, I was really worried that you wouldn't recover for a while longer. But it seems to be working out just fine." Nepgear's smile relieves my aching body if only a little, but I'll take what I can get.
I look outside their apartment window, seeing snow softly fall to the ground, ever so slowly blanketing everything that it touches. It's been going on for a while, to the point where the roads are covered now. A good reason to call off school, just so nobody dies when getting there.
"Besides, Jack-O here's been through much worse than this. Like that time he got stabbed by Andrew." Referencing Halloween now of all times? As she mentions this, the scars on my chest start to sting a little bit.
"Neptune, maybe you shouldn't bring that up." Nepgear reasons with her sister after noticing the small look of pain on my face. I'm surprised she noticed to be honest.
"ooo, ooo, then there was that time we beat you up in the park with sticks. That was funny, like me!" Again, I feel sore just thinking about it. Although it's another memory I haven't had to think about in a while. It's nice if a bit painful on the soul.
I smile to her out of anger with my eyes closed, being pretty fed up with Neptune's antics for the night. "Ok Neptune, I think that's enough…" Nepgear can tell that I'm positively seething right now. If Neptune's half as smart as I think she is she'll stop right now.
"And we can't forget the time I beat you up in front of the school. You didn't even put up a fight!" She starts uncontrollably laughing and begins to roll around on the floor. First off, I didn't fight back because it was part of our deal, so fuck off. And now you've made me angry, get ready Neptune, you're going to get it.
"Alright you little scamp, now you've done it! Get over here!" I pick myself off the living room floor and move towards Neptune, who hasn't noticed due to her laughing fit. I take hold of her ankle, causing her to snap back to reality in a confused daze. Before she can resist, I start dragging her to the front door while she flails around trying to break free of my grip, all the while making angry Nep noises.
I get to the door and stop for a brief moment, just long enough to open it. Once that's good and done I toss her outside into the falling snow. As soon as she collects herself, I close the door and lock it. Moments later, scratching can be heard from the outside.
"There, that should teach her a lesson." I relax and breathe deeply for a moment. Considering how sore I am right now, it probably wasn't a good idea to exert myself that much. But at least I got Neptune away just for a little bit. Nepgear on the other hand looks worried about what happened.
"Jack, I know she can go too far sometimes, but don't you think that's a little extreme?" She asks me frantically, concerned about her sister's well-being. Did she not hear what Neptune said to me?
"Oh she'll be fine."
"It's below freezing outside!" The scratching outside the door continues.
"She has clothes on…" I say nonchalantly to her.
"Her pajamas won't keep her warm outside. Please let her back in." Nepgear looks a little angry when she says that to me. I guess I may have gone a bit overboard in my approached this time. Me and Neptune aren't different in that regard it seems.
Suddenly the scratching outside stops, a lot sooner than I would've expected. "Alright I'll let her back it." Turning around, I unlock the front door and open it, only to be met by a cosmetically frozen Neptune in front of me. Plastered on her face is an expression that's a mixture of fear and desperation, eyes wide open in panic. Not sure how she froze that quickly, but that's Neptune for you.
"Hey Nepgear, we may have to thaw your sister out." I don't know how to describe my tone right now. Only that it's somewhere between fascinated and concerned. Only she could bring out something like that.
"I'm sorry, did you just say thaw her out?" From how I'm standing, Nepgear can't see how her sister looks. I move slightly to the side so she can take it in for herself.
"Ah! How did she freeze so fast?!" Nepgear didn't know what to expect, catching her completely off guard. As she starts to panic, I drag Neptune back inside before she freezes more. With what strength I have left, I'm able to set her on a couch in a relatively comfortable position. See, I'm not that bad am I?
"Just put a Blanket over her and she'll be fine." I speak to Nepgear, who stopped panicking heavily around the time I brought Neptune back inside. Nepgear runs off to grab a blanket for her sister while I start putting on my shoes. She returns with a blanket shortly before I finish putting them on.
"Are you leaving already?"
"Yeah, it's getting late. And once Neptune thaws out you know I'm getting my ass kicked." History repeats itself, and that's what Neptune's history is with me. Insults and violence? Maybe I should rethink things with her after all.
"Yeah, she will do that… But that's no excuse to lock her outside." Nepgear pouts at me, sending a sense of guilt straight to my heart. Maybe I should apologize to Neptune tomorrow and hope for the best.
"I'm sorry, she just knows how to push my buttons is all." I look to the ground, averting my eyes from meeting hers.
"You shouldn't let yourself get angry, it's what she wants in the end." Nepgear may have a point, if I just go with Neptune's flow she won't be annoying.
"Ok, I'll apologize to her tomorrow."That's all I can say now. Talking about cracking the whip on someone.
Nepgear smiles at me, trusting that I've learned my lesson this time. Her inconsistency between being stern and airheaded is one of her more… notable features, but it makes Nepgear, Nepgear. I smile back to her and stand up, slowly moving towards her, only stopping when I'm right in front of her. I lean down and softly kiss her cheek, resulting in her blushing as a reaction.
Pulling away, I smile back to her once more. "Guess I'll see you tomorrow then." It takes her a moment to adjust herself, but she faintly smiles at me after that points. Making my chest tighten up.
"Yeah, I'll see you then. And… I love you…"
"I love you too." With that quiet announcement of our love, I leave their apartment and head back towards my own. Once inside, I make it to my room, and fall asleep after a little while, to a fairly average night of sleep."
'Can you hear me?' I hear women's voice call out to me. I've been through this enough times to already know who it is on the other end.
'Yeah Histoire, I can hear you. What is it this time, am I knocked out or asleep?' You'd think you'd remember being knocked out but in my experience I don't. For all I know I've already had a full day after going to sleep and I just don't realize it yet.
'Do I really contact you that much you're knocked out? Regardless, no, you are merely asleep for now.' That's reassuring to hear right now. After what we've all been through I'm surprised we haven't been murdered in our sleep yet.
'Alright then, what do you need this time?' When Histoire contacts me it's always been of great importance. This time shouldn't be any different from our previous talks.
'It is to give a warning to you.' She sounds pretty worried about this. Although a warning now of all times doesn't surprise me all too much. We've taken out two of our enemies, it only makes sense that something would happen now.
'A warning? What about?' Even if it does make sense, I should still listen to see what else there is to hear.
'After your fight with the previous Bound Deity, I started to scan for others, since I've gotten better at tracking them. While I was unsuccessful at finding any new ones in Gamindustri, I did notices two traces of Bound Deities in your town.'
'It's probably just Andrew and Blair, I don't think those two can do much to us right now.' We haven't seen Andrew in a while now, and Blair is at a disadvantage against me when I use my powers on her. There's nothing that I can think of that would make them act without something happening first.
'No, I didn't detect the Deity residing in the girl you fought previously. This one was a new signature among them. It's likely that this one was just created, housing the last piece of Arfoire's power.
'I see… so they didn't need to be made all at once it seems.' But if that were the case then how were the Goddesses defeated? If it's how I think it is, wouldn't there have only been tow Deities at that time?
'It is likely that once they served their purpose, Arfoire will kill them just to transfer her power to another vessel to serve her purpose.' That might be why it's hard to track them down. Who knows how many of them there've been up to this point now?
'So that's how it is… Can you tell exactly where they are?' If we can confront our enemy now, we'll have a better chance at defeating them. I'm tired of our enemies always getting the drop on us, it's time we start taking the fight directly to them.
'Sadly I cannot, I can only sense that they are in your area. Any further information would take too much time to pinpoint.'
'Damn… whatever the case is though, I'll keep an eye out for anything suspicious around here.' After all, wouldn't want to be surprised this time.
'It's good to hear that you are not growing lazy in your task. To be honest, I had feared Neptune would've given up at some point already.' I can feel the pain in Histoire's voice resonating with my soul. And here I thought I wasn't a fan of Neptune.
I laugh a little at her statement regardless, earning a few small chuckles from my conversation partner. 'Yeah, she's dependable when she wants to be. For better or worse.'
'Agreed, anyhow, there is nothing else to report on my end, I will continue to do my part as long as you do yours.' Just from the sound of her voice I can sense how motherly she is. She has to be if she's been putting up with Neptune longer than me.
'I… Alright, I'll do my best. Until next time." I hear a faint chuckle right before Histoire disconnects. I guess taking out two enemies out of the five put her in high spirits.
It also seemed to me that she trusts me more now. Maybe I've finally shown my worth to the cause. That's what it seems like to me anyway, I'm probably wrong though, I usually am when it comes to these things.
Whatever it is, I can feel my body waking up now. It tends to happen after Histoire talks to me after all. As I ponder the fleeting questions in my mind, I'm torn away from this place, and put back into reality.
My eyes open slowly to adjust to the light around me. It's not as bright as it usually is when I wake up, but that's due to it being early and cloudy right now. I didn't set an alarm today and I still woke up like this, great, just great.
I take my phone off my nightstand and actually see what time it is. 6:49 huh? A little later than I thought it would be, but too early to wake up on a snow day. I groan to myself, tossing my body back into the covers.
If I'm lucky, I'll be able to fall asleep again and wake up later in the day. I close my eyes and wait for the embrace of sleep to take me.
"…" I wait
"…" I wait
"…" And I wait
I look back at my phone to see how much time has passed already. I'm shocked when I find out that it's only been five minutes. Well as long as I'm up, I might as well start the day like this.
I sit up and stretch for a moment just to let it all out, then I stagger to my feet out of my bed. My body is still sore as hell but at least I can move around more that I was able to yesterday. After that's all good and done, I grab a towel so I can take a shower.
The warm water will help my muscles relax, and soothe the remaining pain in my body just for a little while. Stepping out of my room, I hear some noise from the kitchen. It's probably Maurice trying to make something to eat before he goes to work today, so I won't bother him right now.
Once I'm in the shower, I turn the water to the hottest setting it can go, as most of my showers are. As soon as the water is somewhat warm I step inside and let myself be bombarded by water. The hot water feels great on my skin today, better than usual for some reason if I might add.
I stand still, soaking the water into my being, releasing all of the pent up stress in my body by just staying in place. It's kind of funny how that works, well to me anyways. I wonder if this is how everyone else feels when they take a hot shower. As I start thinking about this shower thought, my mind drifts to Nepgear.
Hmm… Nepgear… Shower… That's kind of exciting to think about. My eyes open up abruptly in horror. "Shit, I can't think about that! Neptune will kill me if she finds out."
If the Sharicite works the way I think it does, people with enough control of it can sense what other people connected to the same Sharicite are thinking. I could hear Nepgear's thoughts once before, on the night we did it. Then Neptune knew the day after, I'm not taking any chances right now.
I try my best to not think about anything and just finish my shower. Luckily I'm able to finish without incident, like all good showers are meant to be. It's not natural to suppress thoughts like these at my age, but Neptune defies nature by a long shot.
I step out and start to dry off. After I'm done drying, I put on my morning clothes that I keep in here and hang my towel up. I make my way to the kitchen, expecting Maurice to be done with whatever he's microwaving for breakfast so I can make my own.
To my surprise, he's still here, with a couple skillets and a cooking sheet next to him, flipping some sausage and stirring eggs in the other pan. Not only that, but there are biscuits on the cooking tray with him too. I can't help but look in amazement at the sight before me.
"Well this is new." I take a verbal note at this unusual display. Seriously, in all my years of living with him I've never seen him actually cook.
"Oh, good, come here and try this." My brother flips the sausage from one of his pans and puts in on a plate sitting next to him. When I look at this plate, I see the sausage, scrambled eggs and biscuits he's been cooking. The surprises only continue with Maurice this morning.
"If it's anything like the chilly you made then I'm out." Just thinking about it makes my mouth start burning up. It's hard to fuck up sausage, eggs and biscuits but I'm sure he'd find a way.
"Don't write it off just yet, I've been working hard lately on how to cook. Just give it a couple bites will ya?" His words are sincere, and from the presentation he seems like he's at least gotten better if only a little.
"Fine…" What have I got to lose? It's not like I'll die from some bad cooking. What's the worst that could happen?
I move next to him in front of the plate, Maurice hands me a knife and fork while giving me hopeful eyes. Honestly I'm not used to seeing him like this but I suppose it's better than depression.
I cut off a tiny piece of sausage and examine it. Nothing appears to be wrong with it visually. *Gulp* The moment of truth is before us.
"Ahh…" As I bite down on it I don't taste what I thought it was going to be like. It's not spicy, but it's not bland either. There are some things I can definitely say are wrong with it however.
"It's not bad, but the sausage is pretty overcooked. It tastes a little dry and just doesn't feel good to chew." By this point we've moved to the table, and I look to the eggs. I proceed to take a bite of them, they aren't as bad as I thought they'd be, but they still need improvement.
"And you used too much milk on the scrambled eggs. They're somehow fluffy and atery at the same time. Maybe leave them on the heat for a little longer." I continue on my brothers breakfast for another moment. Just looking at the biscuits I can already see what the problem is with them.
"So... you don't like it? I guess I should've seen that coming." Maurice smiles to himself, probably disheartened with his efforts. When he made dinner that one night, she sounded like he wanted to better himself. This must be what he meant.
"I didn't say that, you tried hard and that's what counts. Even if it's something as simple as cooking." Work hard for what you have, that's something Maurice taught me when I was just a kid.
"You did alright, enough to eat it anyway." I give my brother a small laugh before taking glance at the plate. He follows in my example and looks at his for a moment too.
"Every morning, after I take you to school, and before I go to work, I try to cook breakfast. I've seen you cook for me so many times, it's about time you had a break right?"
"If you wanted to learn I would've helped you." I take another bite of sausage, still getting used to its distinct flavor.
"You learned how to cook by yourself didn't you? I just thought maybe I could too." He takes a bite of eggs, wincing at the feeling in his mouth but still eating it regardless.
"Still, we're brothers, you can ask me anything." Even if it feels like he's my dad sometimes, I still haven't forgotten who my brother is.
"Of course we're brothers, but I should be looking out for you more." All of a sudden, I feel the inner pain of a man being let out. He's been like a father to me these past seven years.
"True, but it doesn't hurt to have someone watch your back." I learned that lesson well through the friends I've made so far. Maybe from that I could teach my brother something new.
I see a lone tear drop from his eye, accompanied with a small smile. Maurice seems content with something now, like he knows the answer to something lost to him.
"Are you ok?" I've never seen him like this, it's a bit concerning.
"Yeah, I'm alright. After all, I'm your big brother, as long as I'm here, I'll make sure that we're both alright." He's full on smiling now, a smile I haven't seen in years. His voice isn't held back right now, he's sure of his own conviction.
"Don't get all sappy on me now, it'll make me cry too." There's water in my eyes that's for sure. I can't cry in front of my brother, not after what he just said to me. After hearing him declare that, I don't want to make him worry about me, anymore than he already has.
Maurice stands up and walks towards me, only stopping at where I'm sitting. He holds out his arms in front of me and beckons. "It's ok to cry you know Jack. Because no matter what, I'll always love you."
These words pierce me through my heart. I didn't know how I felt about him fully up until now. Was he my father or my brother? I couldn't come to a decision about that. It's finally dawned on me that we've always been there for each other in one way or another. Whether it was him giving me a place to live after our mom was taken away, or me cooking to try and make his life easier. Or him telling a bad joke and I'd laugh at it anyway, we've akways had each others backs.
I lean in and close my arms around him tightly, he wraps his own arms around me just as hard, giving me a warmth that I couldn't ever experience before, not even from Nepgear, it's something I've wanted all this time.
"I love you too."
A/N: So it's been almost a year eh? Yeah... sorry about that guys, it's something I couldn't really control. Truth be told, this last year was very hectic for me and I couldn't find the time or the energy to write. Regardless, I'm getting back into the grove of things now that it's mostly under control. It's my final Hiatus notice, I'll give semi-regular updates whenever I can. I hope there are people who've been here all this time, just so I can thank them for being this patient with me. I hope this extra long chapter will make up for the time lost. But I'd still like to hear back from you guys. Am I shaking off the rust still? I always want to get better, so I look forward to what you have to say.
I'm glad that I can write for you guys again, it makes me unbelievably happy to say that. Which is why I can't wait to see you in the next update.