Damn, it's been awhile. That's what happens when I lose my DS. Can't get the dialouge I need for story purposes. Here's the funny part...in a last minute decision, I didn't even need that for this chapter. Instead, I did a chapter that doesn't advance the video game story any. Lucky for me I had not even started the chapter at that point..anyway, I must have a few readers irritated with me. Not only do I not update, but I left them with a nasty, nasty little cliffhanger...okay, so I enjoyed driving them nuts with that, but it's not like I planned on having it go this long, yes? Anyway, I guess I just do what I do: Pick up the pieces and move on.
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As Aile sat there and clenched her fist, but not in anger.
"...Why?"
Leviathan frowned.
"Why what?"
"Why did it have to be now? Of all the times to fall in love, why did it have to be now?"
"That's the thing about you humans and your emotions: They can be pretty sick and sadistic sometimes."
"..."
"I'm not helping, am I?"
"...No..."
Leviathan put her arm around her friend.
"Alright, how about this: Asking 'why now' isn't going to help with anything. What matters, is how you deal with it."
"But what if he feels the same way?"
"...Well...Then that complicates things..."
"How?"
"Let's cross that bridge when the time comes...if it comes."
Aile loved and hated the thought of that at the same time.
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Vent sighed.
"So you're saying that the data is going to take more time to decode?"
Prairie avoided looking Vent in the eyes and nodded.
"Yeah."
"I thought we had top of the line equipment on this thing?"
"Look, the data is a heavily encrypted!"
"Sounds like someone's gear isn't as l33t as they think it is."
"It is too, l33t!"
Vent grinned. Prairie was rather cute when she was made.
"Alright then, l33t Master, how long are we talking until this data is done?"
"Tomorrow morning. Maybe even tomorrow afternoon."
"That long, eh? Serpent sure was desperate to prevent us from getting this thing. I wonder what's on it?"
"Well, we know that it's the second half of the data that you retrieved when you beat Luerre, so there's a good chance that there's some information on Model W in it."
"Alright, I'm taking off then. I leave you to your work."
"Oh, and Vent?"
"Yes?"
"I'm sorry, but 'l33t Master?' You've been reading webcomics again, haven't you?"
"Heheheheheh."
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Vent passed the next few hours on the outside deck, letting the wind pass him by as the airship flew onward. He found it rather uncanny that whenever the Guardians were in the middle of something like decrypting data, training, or just partying and getting drunk that Slither Inc. never attacked.
"Maybe they're on the same schedule as us or something? Alright, enough of this, I'm bored. Maybe I'll go bug Aile or...something."
No sooner than he opened the door, he literally bumped into Aile. The two fell down, winced, and stood up. Vent smiled.
"Oh! Hey, Aile. I was just looking for you."
"Oh...um...hey, Vent...um...can you excuse me? I'd like to be alone."
"What's wrong? You wanna talk about it?"
"N-no, I'm fine!"
"C'mon. Talking will make you feel better!"
Aile began to walk away.
"No thank you!"
Vent walked after her.
"Hey, hold up! You wanna go play video games or something?"
"Sorry, Vent, I'm busy!"
"Busy? You just said you wanted to be alone!"
"Aaaaagh! Shut up, shut up, shut up!"
She ran off around the corner. By the time Vent got there, she was gone. He was astonished.
"Is she...avoiding me?"
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"Why did I run away from him?"
Aile wandered the halls like a lost puppy, her mind like a hamster in it's wheel. She wanted to talk to someone about her feelings, but Leviathan had given her all the advice she was willing to give saying that she needed to figure everything else out on her own. She almost...almost considered Prairie, but she discarded the though. She could already hear her voice in her head going...
"Ah ha! I knew it! You do love him!"
That thought alone was enough to make Aile want to punch Prairie's lights out, though it would prove pointless. Zero, maybe?
"No, he'd just go find a lab coat and put it on just so he could introduce himself as the love doctor or some sarcastic bullshit like that."
Maybe X was the one to go to?
"...Nope. Knowing him, he's still irked that I got drunk and had slept with Vent. No way he'd risk our relationship going somewhere if there was a risk of that happenening again without the booze."
Fefnir? Aile started snickering at the very thought.
"Heeheehee...no...just...just no..."
The humor quickly vanished and the lost puppy routine continued.
"Darn it! I need to talk to someone! I need--"
Aile walked right into her answer, the two tumbling down. She looked up, pointed and smiled.
"Rose!"
The nurse looked up dazed and confuse.
"...Huh?"
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"So...you want my advice on what to do about your feelings?"
"Yes..."
Rose didn't say anything for a moment.
"You realize that...there's a part of me that's telling me to not tell you anything...to let you go down in flames admist your worry...to swoop in and steal him out from under you...yes?"
"I know! I know you like him and what I'm asking of you is selfish, but please! You're the only one I can go to at this point."
"...What...makes you think I can help you?"
"I...heard that you had a relationship with someone once."
Thought it couldn't be seen behind her purple bangs, Rose's eyes were wide. Memories of what happened to him. She cringed and sniffed.
"I see..."
"..."
"Alright...I'll help you..."
"What?"
"I know that you're special to Vent. He talks about you a lot. He worries about you too."
"...He...does?"
"Alright, Aile. Here's what I did..."
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Zero yelled out in frustration as he slammed Vent's Nintendo DS down on his bed.
"Damn you, Dracula and Death!"
Vent looked up.
"They kick your ass again?"
"Yes! I just can't get around that stupid dual crush where Dracula turns into all those bats!"
"...Dude...Use the super jump with Jonathan."
"Super jump?"
"Up and the L-Button? You've been using it since the Forgotten City level?"
"..."
X laughed.
"And you say you own at Castlevania!"
"Stow it, X! If it was just Dracula fighting me I'd beat him!"
"Of course you would. His moves are a stale as god only knows what!"
Vent held his head and growled.
"Will you two quit your bitching!? I'm thinking here!"
"What's wrong with you?"
"...Aile's avoiding me."
Zero grinned.
"Yes! She finally realized she digs him!"
X groaned.
"Great...she wants him now..."
The two reploids looked at each other. Zero gave a thumbs up. X looked like he was ready to sob at the thought of a repeat of the party. Luckly, Vent didn't notice.
"What is her problem anyway? Is it that time of the month or something."
Zero shook his head.
"I doubt it. She'd be biting your head off, not avoiding you."
Vent sighed.
"Something she ate?"
X shrugged. The two were amazed at how dense Vent could be at sometime. They were clearly lying through their teeth and he was buying every word of it.
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
As time passed, more and more people noticed the tension between Vent and Aile. Prairie was actually starting to worry, thinking it would pass like it always would. If it weren't for the possiblity of Aile reformation the reploids hard drive, she would have inquired as to what was wrong, but when it came to Vent, Aile was, as always, very territorial. She sighed and went to hunt her down.
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Aile still wandered through the halls. Her talk with Rose made her realize what she had to do, but she lacked the courage to do so. As she wandered, she began hearing soft music. A piano.
"Who...?"
As she followed the music, she began to be drawn into a part of the airship she wasn't familiar with. It didn't look like it from the outside, but Guardian HQ was a very big place. She finally reached the end of a small corridor. The door on her left was slightly ajar and light poured out of it. She peered in and saw Vent at and old piano.
"He's...playing? Wow...it's...been so long since he did..."
In all the years Aile knew Vent, he had been teaching himself to play as a hobby. While it wasn't something one might expect from him, Vent was good. Usually, he played under two situations. One was when he couldn't sleep at night. Sure it would wake up her and Giro, but after awhile, they began to not care. The second reason was whenever something was weighing heavily on him. When this was the case, one could listen and figure out a general idea of what bothered him. Based off of what she heard, it sounded as though he was searching for an answer to something. Asking why about something. She sat in the hall listening to him for a moment. She noticed a pair of pink boots next to her. Prairie's voice was soft.
"Can we talk?"
"I don't know, are you going to give me grief when I tell you what's wrong?"
"I already know what's wrong. No. I'm not."
"Then we can talk. Let's go somewhere where he won't hear us."
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"Okay, so spill it."
"I love him."
"I know that. I mean what's the problem?"
"Do I tell him or not?"
Prairie sighed. It was like dealing with her sis and Zero all over again. Her sis had been just the same.
"Aile, I'll be blunt. That's not my choice."
"But why did it happen now? I asked Leviathan, but she refused to give me a straight answer."
"Then I will. Aile, you really can't stop something like love."
"But what will people do think when they know?"
"What do you mean when they know? Aile, we already know. Vent's too thick to see it on his own. Hell, even Zero knows it and he's a raving idiot half the time. You can't get the courage to tell him that from others. You need to find it yourself."
Prairie stood to leave.
"And Aile? I may say that Vent is thick and is the only one that doesn't know...but if you didn't tell him, I don't think it would matter."
"What?"
"I think a part of him deep down already does know. But you won't know for sure unless you turn the wheel of fate."
As she left Leviathan passed her by. Prairie's voice was a whisper.
"Leviathan, tell everyone but X to meet me upstairs in two hours."
"Why not, X?"
"He would blow the lid on this little plan."
Leviathan nodded.
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Prairie paced back and forth in front of Rose, Harpuia, Phantom, Fefnir, Leviathan, and Zero. The way things were set up it looked like one of the Hinata House emergency attic meetings that one might see in a volume of Love Hina, down to the single lantern that lit the otherwise dark room. It was clear that someone had been reading Love Hina a tad to much (More than likely, the almighty author of the story), but that wasn't the point. The pink-clad Guardian commander stopped and faced her friends.
"I think we all know why we're here."
Everyone silently nodded.
"Good. So what are we going to do? If we don't get Aile to spill her guts to Vent, then she'll mope around to the point of driving us all insane. Any ideas?"
Fefnir raised his hand.
"Booze?"
"No. I don't want another repeat of the party fiasco."
Idea after idea came. Nothing seemed to work. Harpuia finally raised his hand.
"Harpuia? You haven't been throwing anything out the entire meeting. Why now?"
"My idea is a little extreme."
"Will it work?"
"Can't say for sure. All it will do is make it so that Aile can't avoid him anymore."
"It's a start. Can we do this without X finding out? He'll blow us out of the water with one of his moral attacks."
"Yeah. So what's the plan."
"You know that hatch in the engine room?"
"The one that needs the special tool to open?"
Harpuia nodded.
"That's the one."
Prairie frowned.
"I see where you're going with this. It is a little extreme, but it may work."
"Only if we can Aile to talk to him again."
"True. That, we have no control over."
She looked to everyone.
"Are we agreed then?"
Everyone but Rose nodded. Prairie looked a the nurse.
"Rose...you know we have to do it."
She nodded.
"Yes...I know. Let's do it."
"You won't try any sort of sabotage? You're not going to tell X in hopes of still having a chance at Vent?"
"No. I know when I'm beat. Even if I did do something, he'd come around sooner or later. Let's do it."
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Vent lay on his bed. He decided that pondering what was bothering Aile wouldn't help anything, so he tried to keep himself occupied. He shot up as the airship shuddered.
"Well, that can't be good."
There was a knock at the door. It slid open and Prairie poked her head in.
"Vent?"
"Yeah, I'm here."
"Do you know anything about the engines on the ship?"
While the question was certainly unusual, Vent decided not to question it.
"I've read a little bit about how the thing is put together...why?"
"We're having engine trouble."
Vent slapped himself on the forehead lightly. Prairie could have sworn she heard him utter 'oi vey' to himself.
"Prairie, do I look like? Silure? He's the one who knows this tin can inside out, not me."
"He's still busy fixing some of the damage from the Slither Inc. incident."
He sighed. She wasn't going to back down from this. It must have been bad if she was this determined.
"I'm not gonna be able to do much."
"We need any help we can get."
Vent shrugged.
"Why not? I have nothing better to do."
Vent made his way to the engine room. A small hatch was open in the floor. Vent blinked.
"You mean the problem isn't with the main engine?"
"No, the secondary equipment is having an issue. We had to cut the power to it."
"So I go down there?"
"Heavens no! We let Fefnir go down there and let him break it more! Yes, you go down there!"
"Okay, jeez. No need to get sarcastic."
The hatch covered a shaft about twenty feet deep. Vent slid down the ladder. The secondary room had no real lighting. They had been forced to bring extra lights down below. Vent sighed as he began looking at the nearest piece of gear. He looked it over before looking to his right. There was someone else there. Once Vent's eyes adjusted he smiled.
"Aile?"
His friend shot up and whirled around.
"V-Vent!?"
"Prairie asked you to help with this thing to then?"
"Um, yeah. Could you excuse me?"
Aile shot for the ladder and began climbing up. Vent looked up the shaft.
"Hey! We need to talk!"
"Not now, Vent!"
Just as Aile was getting close to the exit, the hatch slammed in her face.
"What!? No no no no!"
She banged on the door and called out.
"Prairie!? Are you up there!?"
Outside, Prairie had her boot over the hatch. She couldn't help but feel a bit bad about doing this, but she looked to the faces of her friends, who reassured her. The Guardian commander's voice was only a whisper.
"Sorry, Aile, but you'll thank us later."
She sighed as they left, taking the tool that opened the hatch with them.
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Aile pouted as she came back down. Vent tilted his head.
"What's the matter?"
"We're locked in."
"...You're joking, right?"
"No."
As they spoke, the engine hummed to life. Everything was fixed and they didn't even do anything. Vent frowned.
"Huh. It fixed itself. I thought the auto-repair was broken?"
"Well it doesn't matter. We're stuck."
Over what felt like the next two hours, Vent tried numerous times to start conversation with Aile, none of which proved successful. Aile sneezed occasionally. The room was cold. It had no lighting other than what had been brought down, and even worse, no heat. Vent frowned. She wouldn't even go near him. Was she mad at him or something? He had to at least say something.
"You're going to catch cold sitting there alone. We should at least huddle up."
"..."
Vent had finally had enough of this little game.
"Okay, fine. If you won't come here, I'll go there."
He hauled himself up, walked across the room, and sat next to his companion. She stood and crossed the room before placing herself where Vent had been sitting. The boy rolled his eyes and sighed and tried again. It yielded the same result. After another three times he gave his friend a flat look.
"Aile, I can keep this up all day if I have to."
Another ten minutes of playing follow the leader ensued. Finally Aile spoke.
"Why are you still doing this!?"
"Two reasons, my dear. One is that I know we're both freezing cold. The other is..that I can't stand this fraggin' silence! What the hell is wrong with you? Talk to me! Jesus, if you're trying to get back at me for something I did, then you have! I can't take it any more! Yesterday I leave to check on how the data decryption is going and we're fine. I leave to check the data this morning, and we're fine! So either something happened to you, or I've fallen into a wormhole and forgotten what I did to fuck up! What the hell did I do!? Did I hurt your feelings? Did I grope you? Dammit all, talk to me!"
Aile's shock was extensive to say the least. She had only avoided him to sort out her feelings. She had no idea that he'd worry that much!
"I...I'm sorry. If it was bothering you that much, you should have said something."
"I tried! You've been running off all day!"
"..."
"..."
"Vent, tell me...you've changed a lot in the past few weeks. I've never seen you fight so hard. Even more so recently. Why?"
Vent paused. He nodded.
"Well...when I killed Hurricaune...it made me realize how easily a life is taken from someone, no matter how strong they are. The first time I ever really began to realize it was when Giro...died..."
"Go on..."
"But I saw the look on your face in the moments before I stabbed Hurricaune and I thought to myself 'If one of Serpent's minions enjoy seeing that kind of fear and suffering in a human's face, then what is it that Serpent himself takes pleasure in seeing? He plans on doing that to anyone who gets in his way. Before and after he awakens Model W. I can't let that happen."
"...And here I never thought you to be the kind of person to think about others so much."
Vent smiled warmly as he put his hand on her shoulder.
"Well, I do think about some people more than others."
"V-Vent!"
It was happening again. She was red in the face, her heart was racing, and they were leaning closer to one another.
"Vent...wait...I'm not...ready..."
"...You're lying to me..."
"...I...yes, I am..."
Aile couldn't believe this was actually happening. This had to be her dream. She would get close, and she would wake up. Then she'd ask herself why she kept having that same dream over and over. This time, the so called dream didn't stop. She confirmed this for herself when their lips actually met. This wasn't the dream. She was actually here kissing Vent. For a moment they just stayed like that before natural instincts made them part to breathe. Vent blinked.
"Wow...that was...wow..."
Aile was red in the face and completely silent until she muttered something.
"...you."
"What?"
"...ve you..."
"One last time?"
"...I love you..."
Vent smiled.
"Then we have a problem."
"What!? Why!?"
"Cause we feel the exact same way."
Aile felt much more at ease now. She grinned as she spoke.
"X is going to give us hell, you know."
"Like we care...so, um...what now?"
"How about you shut up and kiss me again?"
Vent was happy to oblige.
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Alright. Another chapter. I hope this came out alright...anyway, here's the deal...I feel as though I've lost track of where I'm going with this, so as of January 19th, I'm taking a bit of a break from writting so I can get my bearings and plan out the next few chapters. I'll be back to posting chapters on Febuary 2nd at the earliest, and Febuary 9th at the very latest. This is why the chapter is so long and I actually hit a decent plot point: So there was something to look forward to. Alrighty then. Until next time. Thanks for reading.
