All is fair in love, war, and paperwork…
In the medical bay of the Guardian airship, words were being spoken at a loud volume. White walls and counters that were slightly yellowed with age and enthusiastic cleaning did little to distract the young teen visiting the area.
The infirmary was a precise, overly sanitary affair. Having so many sharply angled edges and straight lines in one place was far too alien for Aile's liking. Said mischief maker winced as a needle dutifully slid into her arm, but it was not the near-unnoticeable pinching sensation that made her react as such. No, it was the rightfully flustered nurse and her bold complaints that made her shy away out of sympathy and grit her teeth at the absurdity of political riffraff that doctors apparently had to face. "I still can't believe your records, or lack thereof!" echoed around the room as Muguet grabbed said paperwork from a nearby counter. It was a significant stack of documents to be sure. Apparently all that paper and heaps of text were just for a few measly shots? And that was after they'd already finished a shorter round of testing and signing documents! "Ohhhh girlie, you're out to give me a headache for sure!"
Aile grimaced in sympathy. She was also getting a headache just looking at the stuff. "Better you than me. I wouldn't know where to start!"
"Thank heavens that's the last one," Muguet answered as she set the needle down in a tray for later disposal. Both her and Aile sighed in relief at this. It hadn't been easy, but finally, the last medical procedure for the day was complete. Done and dusted, no more rounds of vaccine shots, no more weird medical tools in Aile's face, nada. And thank the heavens for that! Now that she was finally finished with her numerous ministrations, Muguet began to move onto other things, fishing for a small box that she'd left nearby. It seemed like a lot of work for a few notes on a clipboard and some injections, Aile thought grumpily, but she had been told exactly why they were so important and hadn't skipped a beat when agreeing to them. The head nurse soon came back from her detour. She placed yet another band-aid on the last of several small holes in her patient's arm. This one was a little different than the rest, however.
Aile took a long glance at it and made a face. "...That is some of the most girly shit I've ever seen. It's ridiculous." It was an offensively neon pink thing with little crowns and unicorns all over it, and part of the word 'princess' had been cut off due to the badly designed pattern. Despite the sheer tackiness of the small bandage, Aile couldn't deny the grin on her face. This was definitely one of those things that, in her opinion, was so stupid that it somehow turned into being cool again. For some reason it made a lot of today seem worth it. Aile had been warned that it could get overwhelming to get so many vaccines when she'd never seen a needle before, that her immune system might hate her and shut her down for a few hours or days, and that if she wanted a break at any time that she need only ask. But the pain had actually been a relief, in a way. Pain made her focus, made her remember her father's training, and so she had gamely weathered the round of injections and the waiting she had to do afterwards in case she reacted badly to anything.
She missed her dad. Aile wished he was there with her now, despite the problems it would inevitably cause. She wanted to hug him and hide in his arms and feel safe and protected by his indomitable strength as she weathered all these wretched vaccines. He could protect her from anything! But only if he was there, and sadly, Aile was very much alone right now. She didn't need her dad either, despite her childish wanting, because she knew she could do this. It was hard and scary. But she could do this. And so Aile hung on gamely, and as all things did, the gauntlet of medical procedures finally ended. During all this, Muguet had praised Aile the whole time for being a trooper, even as they both complained about the smallest of gripes or exchanged good-natured barbs. Aile couldn't help but think of the pawn shop owner she used to chat with, though this banter was even better. There was no expectation that they ever had to get along again after today. Which, for some reason, actually made it a lot easier to converse. Weird but handy.
This odd camaraderie only made Muguet grin in response to Aile's critique of the bandage. "Cheeky little runt, aren't you?" the portly nurse chided. Aile turned to her as she fondly berated Aile once more, "Something that bright will be easy to spot… or easy to notice when you've lost it! I'd better not see you lose that bandage too quickly, or I'll be getting a roll next time!" At this she reached into a drawer and held up a fist-sized bolt of gauzy fabric, a proper bandage from what Aile knew of medical equipment, and waggled it threateningly. Aile just scoffed at it, but resolved that the little sticker-like thing on her arm was definitely preferable to being wrapped up like a mummy.
"Everyone's always calling me a runt or a little shit, come on, I'm not that tiny am I?" Aile teased grumpily.
Muguet, who Aile was slowly and begrudgingly becoming fond of the more she interacted with her, only rolled her eyes in response. "You aren't as tall as your brother, and you're about twice as thin as him, but somehow you're still not the smallest person I've ever had to wrestle onto a hospital bed," Muguet admitted. She gave an exaggerated frown, "On the other hand, you are the worst when it comes to paperwork. I'll spare you the brunt of it, since I doubt you'd be interested in just how many requisition forms I need to fill out for all these vaccines you've needed… but suffice to say it's quite a lot, dearie! You'll send me to the pits of despair! And that's not even starting on your legal work."
"My, uh, legal work?" Aile stared nervously. Her tiredness was showing, and her frayed nerves were all-too-quickly brought back to the fore. This had been a very long day, and although Muguet's brusque and efficient methods had been a balm to her (all too similar to her daddy's no-nonsense, suck-it-up, and get-shit-done attitude), even the slightest hint of further adversity was enough to make her defensive.
"Why yes, your legal work. Most of it is a bit beyond what I'm able to do as I'm only a medic, not a legal guardian, but suffice to say this is gonna be a nightmare." Muguet chortled, "Whoever has to do these forms is sure gonna wail loud enough to wake the dead! There's all sorts of things much worse than your medical checkups that you're behind on," Muguet joked, but there was a tinge of frustration that no one could ignore. "That's not to mention your education levels. Or the gaps in your family history… well. Anyways. The school system will want to test where you're at, but they need permission from a guardian… Agh!" The poor woman groaned as the full implications hit them both.
Aile grimaced, "Geez, this is gonna be a mess, isn't it? What am I gonna have to do?" The sheer scope of documents was mind-boggling to Aile. "Do these really have to be done? Can't we just, like, not do them…?"
"Could easily get labeled a criminal if we do that sweetheart. No flouncing Legion laws here: if you want to be able to go around society without your brother nearby to keep away the cops for you, we need to get the legal bits in check. And even Vent couldn't keep away Legion's social services if they get wind of this, Mega Man or not. It might get him in hot water with the government too. We wouldn't want that for Vent, now would we? If they took you away, who knows if you'd ever see your brother again. As annoying as these forms are, they're quite necessary."
Aile groaned. While she didn't mind being labeled a maverick, was quite proud of it in fact, if her brother got dragged down with her just because she hadn't splattered a bit of ink on a few stupid papers? She'd never forgive herself. That didn't stop a wave of dread from slowly rising in her gut and making her sick at the enormity of the task ahead of her, "So… what do I do?"
"In a way sweetie, there's not a whole lot you can do. You're a minor in the system. A lot of these documents need a legal guardian at a minimum, someone older than you who can make decisions on your behalf. Now I know that's rather silly, you're a big girl who can make her own choices and all… but them's the rules, like it or not." She admitted. Then a cunning glint lit up her eyes, "By the way…" she began, and Aile tensed, "Do you already have a legal guardian? Who is the person you consider to be your parent? You don't have to tell me if it you don't want to," she quickly amended at Aile's obvious furtiveness, "but someone has to sign, and unless you want to accept the Guardian organization as your legal caretaker, and yes it's been done before, you need to find someone to help you fill these out." Muguet explained. She then cracked a wry grin, "Judging by that look on your face and your past history with our members, I don't think that option is going to work. So seeing as we can't do much ourselves about it… your current caretaker, I think I've heard mention of a father, or 'Daddy' the reports said? Is he able to sign any forms for you?"
Though the question was made with as much softness and kindness as the woman could muster (a frankly impressive amount, Aile had to admit, especially knowing Muguet's normally brusque manner), Aile squirmed. Her dad was hiding from the world for a damn good reason. And even if having his identity revealed wasn't a problem, would he know what to do with all that paperwork? How many other forms would need to be filled out before she would no longer get in trouble for simply existing outside of this "Legion" group's scope? Damn world governments! Always being nosy and thinking they owned everyone. Ugh. There was so much work to do! She could honestly see her dad just using all that paper as target practice and calling it a day. She felt like doing that herself!
It was at this point that Aile fully realized that she was going to have a major problem here. Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork! Like hell she would do all that herself, not that she even could. Aile was worried, and it was clear for all to see.
Muguet backed off at Aile's rising concern. Noticing Aile's mounting panic, she reassured gently, 'I'm sure someone will be able to help you if you ask around. It doesn't all have to be done right now, we've got a bit of time." She sat down at a small desk with a computer after opening the door and calmly gesturing the the hall outside, dismissing Aile, "I have a few things here to iron out. Take your guardianship forms for now, but don't worry about them. Why don't you go relax for a while, think about the issue? It's going to take me a bit anyways. And don't worry, like I said, you have some time. It doesn't even have to be done within the week! We've got a whole month before things start getting dicey, in my experience. You've got more than enough time to figure it out. Go on, off you go. Take this keycard before you go though; you'll need it to get around the ship or access the teleporter."
Aile nodded numbly, doing her best to keep her brain blank as she took a bundle of papers and a yellow keycard from the nurse. She mindlessly accepted Muguet's invitation to exit. As the young teen left medical, Muguet's voice piped up with one last, joking remark, "Imp! You'd better go gloat over the fact that you can just walk freely around Guardian base now. You're enough of a scamp that I'd be insulted if you didn't! Rub it in a bit, eh? Now off with you, you little rotter!"
The banter brought Aile out of her stupor. She gave an exaggerated growl, "See, there it is again! Little! I'm not little!"
"Whatever you say, hun" Muguet crooned patronizingly. It was a tone Aile stubbornly ignored as she left the area, determined to put the worst of this day behind her. Once outside of the med bay, Aile saw her brother and a couple of the Guardian adults, Prairie and Giro, winding down from some sort of long discussion. It was clearly the tail end as they'd begun chatting randomly about some sort of politics or another, a subject she'd had more than enough of for one lifetime, thank you! She gave a loud, theatrical sigh as she approached her brother, and the others broke off their conversation to greet her as she arrived, "Uuuuugh! What a headache! I'm glad that's over!"
"Hey sis! You look like you've pulled a late shift three days in a row. What's up?"
Aile balked at Vent's overly enthusiastic greeting, her headache getting slightly worse at his chipper tone. But there was also a hint of relief too, because simply seeing her brother made a little jolt of happiness run through her. "Never worked a day in my life, so I'd have no idea what that is. But I bet it involves a lot of paperwork. Ugh. I hate this, who invented this shit?" She shook the dreaded documents in her hand in frustration.
Giro laughed, "Ah, yes, paperwork! The bane of my existence!" Prairie chortled as well, and couldn't stop the long suffering but good natured smile from appearing on her features.
Vent's own face scrunched up, "If you've never worked a day in your life, why the sudden hate for homework?"
"Because apparently I'm in for it," Aile groaned. "I'm pretty far behind when it comes to medical stuff and Legion legal junk, whoever the fuck they are. I want nothing to do with any more paperwork! No wonder people go maverick, it's ridiculous what they make normal people do!" Aile looked around, and saw that there was some begrudging agreement to her statement. As her eyes fell upon Giro, situated comfortably nearby, a clever plot suddenly hatched in her mind. She leaned coyly towards her brother's paternal figure, and to his credit, he seemed to catch on that she was up to no good immediately, "Speaking of paperwork… You run a delivery business, correct? I bet you'd be real good at it…!"
Grio seemed suspicious. His eyes hardened ever-so-slightly, "That I am… what are you getting at?"
"Well," Aile began sickly-sweetly, "since you're so good at this, and I'm just some poor damsel in hopeless distress, surely you could help me figure out how to fill this junk out? Especially since Daddy would probably just light it all on fire." No, she would not be torturing her beloved parent with something this facetious. Although she was sure the bonfire would be lots of fun. She not-so-subtly offered the small stack of documents to him, causing Prairie to raise a brow.
Giro's eyes went harder still, yet there was a hint of sadness, "No. I cannot help you."
Aile was shocked. Nearly dropping the papers she snarled, trying to reign in her easily frayed temper, "What the hell! Why not? You're supposed to be Vent's dad or something right? You'd be doing him a huge favour by helping! Vent and I could hang out without anyone causing us a problem! Surely you should do something about it?"
Girl's brows scrunched up, and he seemed genuinely dismayed as he replied, "Language, Aile. But, er, ahem. It's not a matter of whether or not I want to fill out the paperwork… but the fact that I can't legally do so." He began to carefully explain, "Most of those documents require a legal guardian, and as of this point, you don't really have one as far as I can tell."
Prairie, who had mostly been observing until now, calmly added, "Giro could try to help you with the work, but it wouldn't be accepted by anyone if he's not lawfully related to you in any way. The Guardian organization could perhaps help out-"
"No way!"
"-But I expect you… ah. Yes. I suspect you wouldn't prefer that," the commander frowned, looking a little curmudgeoned by the interruption. Vent gave an exasperated yet fond sigh, and even Giro couldn't avoid a smirk. Prairie eventually gave in herself and chuckled a bit at Aile's bluntness. Then she continued, "Actually, all things considered… perhaps Giro could help after all? It might take a little extra paperwork- don't give me that look, hear me out- considering that Giro is your brother's caretaker, I don't think anyone in the government would bat an eye if he suddenly became yours as well. Legally only, of course!" She quickly amended as Aile's gaze sharpened in offense.
"In no way would I be trying to replace your current father," Giro soothed, "but it would certainly help with all this red tape, now wouldn't it?" He gave her a gentle grin, "I'll even be mostly unconditional about it! We might have to introduce some clauses regarding that language of yours though, ho ho!"
Vent snickered off to the side. Even Prairie joined in on the fun. She lightly elbowed Giro in the ribs as she said, "Really then, you have no excuses not to do it. We might as well shove it on you since you're not doing much else while stuck on bed rest!"
"Oh! Betrayal! Vent, help me out here!"
As the others joked and tossed casual insults, Aile was stuck considering the offer. She was all too happy to lump the work on someone else. Giro was legitimately volunteering anyways, and really, Prairie was right. As much as she hated to agree with the boss of her former enemies, the Guardian commander had a solid point. Giro was indeed stuck at base. He might as well make himself useful and be the one to do all that dumb legal nonsense. He was certainly in for a nasty surprise though, Aile thought to herself humorously. The others continued their conversation despite her lack of input. Vent complained loudly about all the paperwork his father figure occasionally made him fill out for part of the job, and called him as fussy as a grandma. This elicited a good-natured grumble, "Hey! I resent that statement," Giro complained.
"Resent or resemble?"
"Prairie, you absolute traitor, not you too!" Giro grumbled. He crossed his arms in mock offense, even putting on a show by squishing his face into a grumpy expression and sticking his nose up. The others laughed.
Aile herself couldn't join with this merriment. "I don't know… I don't like the thought of having to pretend you're my parent. It's just dumb." Aile couldn't help her hesitation at the concept. It felt wrong. Like it was too easy, and too distasteful. It was against her few remaining morals, and was definitely not her preference to even pretend that Girouette was her parent instead of Omega. Her dad was so much better than him that it wasn't even funny. "You're not my dad. Not even close."
An expression flitted across Giro's face at the disgust in Aile's tone, but it was gone before she could fully parse it out. "Oh no, I understand. But don't worry. It will only be a legal thing. It was quite helpful for when Vent was younger and I needed the authority to raise him… but now that he's older, I trust him to make his own decisions. Well, mostly," Giro snickered with a wry grin. Vent pretended to be mortally offended and the pair laughed it off. After catching his breath Giro continued, "While it certainly helps that we've had a major familial bond going on, now that he's old enough, I have given Vent total freedom. I would do the same for you, of course…" Giro offered, looking hopeful.
It seemed too good to be true. It was definitely too good to be true. Too easy. Aile smelled a rat. He had to be lying or fudging the truth, she knew it. There was no way Giro was letting Vent do whatever he wanted without recourse. No way the solution to her problem would drop into her lap so easily; the coincidence was too suspicious. She'd grudgingly accept it anyways since, well. It made sense. Even if she didn't like calling anyone other than Omega her father, even if this whole thing was just a legal farce to get the government to shut up and leave her alone… it didn't settle well with her. She wanted nothing to do with this. You didn't always get to have things exactly how you wanted them though. Especially not when large organizations like the government or the Guardians were involved. Her dad's tales of Neo Arcadia were more than enough of a warning in that regard.
Aile told herself that this was fine, and that this was just another one of the many tricks she'd played over the years. It was just a legal thing, she reassured herself. Giro would only be her legal guardian and not her actual guardian. This new charade was just a convenient lie. He was not her dad even if he was Vent's. At the end of the day she could ignore all the rules like she always did and do whatever the heck she wanted, and it would be Giro's own fault if he got his name dragged through the mud. He was the one who volunteered after all. But then that might reflect badly on Vent, and… ugh! She detested all this nonsense. Giro was not her actual parent. But maybe she could force herself to pretend if the government ever showed up, because it would probably make her brother happy and keep him safe. It was either that, or do all the dumb paperwork herself and undoubtedly fail and have yet another large organization gunning for her hide. It didn't sit well at all. Yet she'd let this farce happen for now, because even Aile had to grudgingly admit that her daddy, well… Omega couldn't exactly waltz into town to sign some legal documents without starting one Hell of a fuss.
Aile had to stifle a snicker at the mental scenario that came up from this, though. A maverick like her dad trying to talk to the world government about something as unorthodox as legally adopting some random-ass child? Like, what were the pair of them gonna do, walk up to some government official and go, "Hi, yes sirs, my name is Omega, the God of Destruction, AKA shit-got-real incarnate. I am the most notorious maverick ever, and this is Aile! My daughter! Who has very much made a sport of illegal activities. So like, she's kind of a maverick too? Oh yes, I know being labeled a maverick is a death sentence but it's fine, I won't possibly count as one, right? Even though, oh yeah, I'm a mass murderer who has committed genocide multiple times so that makes me a maverick, but I'm also several centuries old which breaks several major international age laws and that also makes me a maverick, and hey I was the origin of the maverick virus anyways, so I'm physically diagnosed with 'maverick'. And now I want to unlawfully adopt a child who was orphaned by mavericks because she's related to a man who was once banished from civilization for being a maverick. And who has been adopted and raised by myself unlawfully. So it's totally chill, right? It's totally fine and dandy and absolutely legally cool. No one's gonna call us out for being a maverick? Or you know, dox us for all those illegal activities that we're totally gonna keep doing? Nothing suspicious here, sirs, not at all, so are we good then? Yes? Okay, have a nice day!"
Hah! No, fuck that. That would work as well as trying to swim with concrete shoes and an anchor chained to your backside.
With that in mind, it wasn't so hard for Aile to convince herself that, all things considered, her dad probably wouldn't mind her letting Giro sign on as her legal caretaker. Besides, it was just gimmicky lawyer stuff to get people to leave her alone. It wouldn't stop her or her dad from doing what they wanted! After all, when have mavericks ever cared about legality? She clenched her fist, crumpling the forms in her hand. But Aile shoved the dreaded things toward Giro anyways. "Fine! Get it over with."
Giro snapped to attention. He delicately took the offered paperwork and immediately materialized a writing implement. Aile waited patiently as he quickly flipped through the thing, not even bothering to read. Which was good, because it's not like Aile was going to follow the rules anyway. The work was done quickly, and the forms were returned to her, "Done. Just sign on these lines I've marked-!" Aile rudely snatched the documents before he could even finish. She also took the thick, fancy looking pen that was being held to her alongside the damning papers, and without further ado, messily wrote her name where indicated.
"You're not my dad," Aile said as she slowly, angrily, signed the documents before her. Sure, fine, maybe she should have read the fine print a bit more, but screw it. She'd had a shitty enough day without making her brain hurt by reading all the stupid words and rules she was going to ignore anyways. As she'd told herself earlier, it wasn't like mavericks like her ever cared about legalities. If anything happened that she didn't like, she would just resign herself to being a true maverick and go her own way. "I'm not gonna call you dad, or pops, or anything like that!"
"Of course, if that's what you-"
"You're absolutely not my Dad. Daddy is my dad! This piece of paper means nothing." Aile growled again to make sure the point stuck. She looked up at the blonde as she said this, looked back down at her signature to make sure it was in the right place, then did a double-take when she realized how badly Giro's careful neutrality was failing to hide his growing enthusiasm. Aile glanced at him and scowled, "Wipe that stupid grin off your face!" Despite her firm tone, she heard a snort to her side. Vent had covered his mouth with his hand, but the evidence was obvious to Aile. Her brother received the same sordid glare as his caretaker, "Don't you go getting smart about it either!"
"I, er, ahem, wouldn't dream of it." He was very cheekily not looking at her. Now it was Giro's turn to snort. Aile responded by stiffening her posture ominously and giving the pair of them a death glare. It made them both go pale and snap their backs straight. It was a facial expression that she knew full well could make people run in sheer terror, because it had happened on more than one occasion. (She'd copied it from her parent's occasional sour stares, and Daddy had been very proud, and more than a little smug, when he'd heard of her success.) Giro coughed, a bit embarrassed at being so easily sussed out. "Er, ahem, sorry Aile," he apologized, "it's just… A bit of an in-joke."
"Y-yeah! Nothing to do with you, don't worry," Vent reassured.
Aile didn't believe a word either of them said, but she let it drop. With a sigh, she loosened her shoulders and let her glare fade, "You assholes are weird."
"Language, Aile!"
Aile promptly whapped Giro in the face with her stack of papers. Vent's composure broke at the sight, and the young teen nearly fell to the floor with laughter. Aile hit him too, though this time it was with Prairie's hastily stolen hat. Both Vent and Praire yelped at the gesture.
Another sudden shriek blasted down the hall from the medical bay. Even Aile winced at the volume and intensity of the frustration and fury contained within Muguet's voice, "BULLSHIT! Legion, what do you mean she's still listed as deceased!? I already fixed that! You literally let me file her vaccinations, but now your stupid system won't even let me put in a weight or height and… ARGH!"
Giro looked incredibly concerned by the news. His eyes widened comically, "That… oh. That doesn't sound good."
"You might be in over your head once again, Giro. And I'm not helping you out of it this time," Prairie giggled at his expense. Giro went a little paler when he realized the depth of the ludicrous bureaucracy that he was going to be involved in. Aile couldn't help but giggle at his look of impending paperwork-fueled doom. Despite all the hardship and headaches of today, she had the feeling that this was all going to work out splendidly.
The sun merrily blazed outside the airship's windows as it began to set after the surprisingly long day. Prairie grumpily took back her hat as the Imp of Cinq Ville let the hum of engines distract her. The creaks and groans of the Guardian base, the keening of the wind outside, and the occasional echo of machinery were oddly harmonious, lulling Aile into a better mood. But as was her preferred lot in life, this peace was not to last. Within short order she heard yet another commotion.
Scombrésoce, the smarmy man from earlier, suddenly tore down the hall screaming blue bloody murder. The boy she'd given the mask to, Sardine, (who was now wearing the intimidating facial accessory gleefully,) chased at his heels while waving a child-sized wrench and screaming with the primordial howl of a toddler turned predator. Vent and the others squawked at the sight and dove out of the way. Prairie herself shrieked particularly loudly. It was a beautiful crown on this coronation of chaos. Aile, unaffected by the madness, just stood and laughed. As Sardine belted after the man and followed him around a corner, Aile realized that, issues with paperwork aside, this was going to be a wonderful new chapter in her life…
