~Chapter 16~
"I don't suppose I need to tell you to actually physically stay and rest here this time, do I?" Mea asked, floating into the room through the window and letting the exhausted petite female Navi back down to her feet.
Lei shook her head.
"No.. Thanks for helping me inside, Mea." She said, smiling sheepishly at her tall friend.
Mea smiled wide.
"Good." She said, stretching her arms, then quickly sat down on the single chair in the room, "You're lucky that you're light! I wouldn't have managed to lift us both inside otherwise."
Lei simply giggled as she sat on her bed.
The corridor was still as silent as before, and it now felt as if they were the only two NetNavis still awake in the whole building.
"Well?" Mea suddenly asked, watching her closely.
Lei's expression turned slightly confused at her question.
The tall Navi broke into a cheerful laugh, then lifted her legs to rest on top of the small table near the bed.
"Start talking, girl! I wanna hear all about what made you want to continue this delivery in the first place!" Mea said with excitement, her green eyes wide and filled with interest.
Lei blinked at her friend.
'This question again..' She thought to herself, remembering her conversation with Dean.
"I'm sorry Mea.. I'm just not really sur-" She started, only to be immediately interrupted by the tall female Navi;
"Yeah, Yeah don't give me this 'I'm not sure' crap." Mea said, smiling wide, "I'm not Dean, Lei, I'm not gonna scold you, but I'm sure as hell gonna dig some answers out of you." She crossed her arms.
Lei's blue eyes widened.
She kept quiet for a few moments, then, her expression turned sad.
"You're right, I'm sorry.." She apologized, shifting her gaze to the ground, "I just.. I don't know how to say this.. How to explain the reason.. At first I thought it was only logical that I should finish this delivery as the one who started it.. but as time passed I realized this answer was getting more and more irrelevant.."
Mea watched her closely.
"Take your time, Lei. It's alright." She said, her voice reassuring.
Lei lifted her blue eyes back to her friend.
Neither of them spoke for a few moments.
"I.." The petite Navi started, "felt something.. On the first day."
Mea raised an eyebrow at her.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
Lei breathed deep.
"Remember when I told you guys that MegaMan's message to Bass was just an invitation to a battle?" She asked, biting her lower lip.
Mea kept silent for a few seconds as she recalled their conversation a few days ago.
"Yeah. What about it?" She asked.
The petite female Navi smiled softly to herself.
"It wasn't.." She confessed, lowering her gaze to her hands resting on her lap, "Apparently MegaMan and Bass are actually somewhat of friends, and MegaMan was simply interested in Bass' well being after not hearing anything from him for such a long time."
Mea kept silent as she continued;
"When I first met Bass, I didn't think he was scary, just incredibly rude and stubborn.. But after he heard MegaMan's message he made an expression I would have never thought I'd see someone like him make. And I.. felt something; I was completely surprised, and also.. kind of.. Sad."
The tall female Navi stared at her for a few moments.
"Why did you feel sad?" She asked.
"I guess.. Because it made me realize that all it took for him to make that expression was someone asking him how he was doing.. That fact made me want to try and.. see more of him.. I think." Lei explained.
Neither of them spoke for a few moments.
"What happened next?" Mea blinked at her.
"I asked the boss to continue with the delivery to its next destination, which was MegaMan.. Who told me about Bass' past.." Lei answered, breathing deep.
Mea's green eyes widened with confusion.
"His past..?" She asked.
Lei swallowed hard.
"Bass had a terrible past." She started, "When I delivered him his second message I was selfishly curious.. And I asked him to tell me more about it."
Mea simply stared at her with disbelief.
"And he told you?!" She asked, raising her voice.
Lei lifted her blue eyes to meet her friend's green ones and simply nodded.
Then, her expression turned sad again.
"I was just so.. Interested. I felt like I wanted to know more about him.. What makes him who he is.. What drives him.. What he believes in.. Everything. And eventually he agreed to tell me all about it.. About all he had been through. He tried to make it sound as if.. it didn't mean anything to him anymore.. But his expression when he told me.." She clenched her hands into fists, "It clearly still did.. And that suddenly made me realize that all I did was just satisfy my own selfish desire to know what was literally none of my business. And still, I was glad that he shared it with me."
Mea's green eyes widened.
"Go on.." She said, waiting earnestly for the continuation of the story.
Lei went silent for a few moments, then grabbed her long, brown hair and moved all of it forward to lay against her chest as she gently brushed her fingers through it.
"I.." She almost whispered, shifting her blue eyes away from her friend, "Hugged him."
Somehow, meeting her friend's eyes was the last thing Lei wanted to do at that moment. But the piercing silence quickly taking over the room made it impossible to avoid it. She breathed deep as she slowly turned to look at the tall female Navi.
Mea was simply frozen in shock.
Neither of them spoke for a few moments.
"You.." The tall female Navi finally managed to say, "You HUGGED Bass?!" Her voice reaching new heights as she yelled out her question.
Lei's blue eyes widened.
"Mea! Keep it down..!" She said, helplessly trying to make her friend somehow shut up, as she felt the blush spread in her face.
This was a hospital, after all.
The tall female Navi forced herself back into a normal tone again.
"Oops! Sorry!" She said, raising a hand to her mouth while still grinning like a mad woman, then took her feet down from the small table and sat closer to the petite Navi, who simply crossed her arms in return, "Lei, that's pretty damn dangerous..! And to think that he'd just let you do it.. Wow!"
Lei stared at her for a few moments, then lowered her hands back to her lap.
"I guess it sounds impossible.. But it happened.. And Bass didn't even try to hurt me.. On the contrary, after that he was nothing but nice to me." She explained.
Mea blinked at her words and went silent for a few more moments.
"So how did you end up hurt?" She asked.
Lei sighed.
"Bass sees MegaMan as his sworn enemy.. Something about them settling a score between them.. And it just seemed so.. pointless. Especially after I've learned that fighting to survive is basically everything he knows.. " She said, breathing deep, "I felt like I didn't want him to suffer anymore.."
The tall female Navi watched her closely as she continued;
"So I told him that I didn't want him to get hurt." Lei lowered her gaze back to her hands, "After that, Bass told me I have no reason to worry about him.. but I simply couldn't agree with that. Then, he told me to come watch their battle to prove to me that he could take MegaMan down with no problem."
Mea kept silent for a while.
"And their battle was today?" She asked.
Still gazing at her hands, Lei simply nodded.
"They fought in a safe distance from me, though.. The reason I got hurt was because some bad guys interrupted the fight due to some grudge against Bass.. One of their shots accidentally almost hit me. It was Bass who yelled at me to move, and came to rescue me from under the wreckage." The petite Navi lifted her blue eyes to her friend, "He saved me."
Mea simply stared at her for a few moments in amazement.
Neither of them spoke for the longest time.
"Lei.. How do you feel about Bass?" She asked, leaning forward.
Lei's brow furrowed.
"How do I.. feel.. about him..?" Confused, She repeated her friend's words.
Mea sighed deeply.
"Lei, I don't know how to tell you this, but the Black Shadow of the UnderNet may be seriously in love with you." Mea said, crossing her arms at her friend, sitting on the bed before her.
Not sure she heard her friend right, Lei went completely silent for a good minute as she processed the tall female Navi's words.
Then, her blue eyes widened as her cheeks turned red and her expression to pure shock.
"..W..What?" She barely managed to say through her confusion.
Mea broke into a loud laugh at her reaction.
"Hahahaha! So cute! Oh my god!" She called, still laughing.
Lei was left frozen in a helpless mixture of confusion and embarrassment.
She blinked as she ran the tall female Navi's words through her mind once again.
'Bass..? In love with.. Me?' She thought to herself, feeling the hotness in her cheeks increase, 'That can't be.. Right..?'
She raised her confused gaze to her friend, who was breathing hard due to laughing too much.
"What are you looking so confused for?! You honestly wanna tell me that option didn't even once cross your mind?" She asked, lifting her legs back to rest on top of the small table next to the bed.
Lei simply shook her head at her.
"We just get along..!" She said, cupping her flustered face in both of her small hands, realizing how red she must look like right now.
Mea smiled viciously.
"Pfft- Yeah, okay. Then answer me this – who did I hear you talking to before I found you sneaking out from your room earlier? Hmm?" She asked, her smile turning into a huge grin.
Wide eyed, Lei went completely silent.
Mea broke into a mad giggle.
"Honestly.. I already figured something was up when you came back after your first delivery to him." The tall female Navi started, grabbing Lei's attention, "Earlier that day, after you left with Dean, some guys in the company were talking about another messenger NetNavi who had to deliver to Bass a few years ago.. They said Bass didn't even agree to receive it, and that our poor guy ended up in a hospital. And then there's you – making him sign the freaking confirmation form on your first time.. No doubt he fancied you from the start, girl." She winked at her.
Lei simply stared at the tall female Navi for a few more moments.
She was left completely speechless.
Then, she blinked.
Suddenly feeling incredibly dizzy, Lei grabbed her head with her right hand.
'Oww.. Why? I didn't even move this time..' She thought to herself.
"Hey, is everything okay?" Mea asked, her green eyes going wide at her friend's pained expression.
Lei lifted her gaze to her friend.
"Yeah.. Just dizzy.. I'm gonna lie down, I think." She said, quickly lowering herself onto the bed.
Mea stared at her for a few moments, then got up to her feet.
"Alright, I'm gonna leave you to rest for today then, sweetie." She said, floating to the door.
Lei smiled at her tall friend.
"Thanks, Mea. For everything." She said.
Mea simply smiled at her.
"No problem, I'll check up on you tomorrow." She answered, and with that, she left.
Lei let out a deep breath, as she carefully shifted herself to lie on her side, then fixed her blue eyes on the night sky showing through the now closed window in her room.
She was just so incredibly tired, Yet everything Mea said never ceased running through her head, keeping her mind busy.
'Am I..?' She thought to herself, feeling the blush once again start to form in her cheeks.
Floating through the quiet main hall in the first floor, Mea stopped as she noticed another NetNavi sitting by himself in one of the chairs before her.
She squinted her green eyes at his direction, then blinked in surprise as she finally recognized who it was.
"Dean..?" The tall female Navi called his name, then floated closer to him.
The male Navi turned to her.
"Hey Mea." He said, rising to his feet.
Mea's expression turned confused.
"What are you doing here, sitting all by yourself..? Did you come to visit-" She stopped talking as her eyes widened with realization, "Oh.. Crap." She swallowed hard.
Dean chuckled.
"It's okay, I heard a small part of it, then I decided to leave." He said, shifting his brown eyes to the big window in the hallway.
Neither of them spoke for a few moments.
"Dean.. You should just tell her. That girl is as oblivious as they get." Mea suddenly said, breaking the silence.
The male Navi said nothing for a few moments as he shifted his gaze back to his co-worker.
Then, he sighed.
"I think I might just have to, now." He said, smiling helplessly at her.
Mea's expression turned confused.
"What do you mean..?" She asked.
Dean shifted his brown eyes away from her.
"That guy, Bass.. He's dangerous." He said, his expression serious, "I don't think Lei's safe around him."
A/N: Well, that sure was a 'Heavy' chapter!
The big reveal, finally! or at least one of them. Lei sure is clueless.. ;)
Also, What is Dean planning?!
As always, thank you for all your positive feedback! please keep reviewing this lil' thing so I'd know what you think!