Aero looked up at Dia, who was taking notes.
He'd been going to Dia every day like she requested of him. It didn't seem like much to ask for, so he did. She stayed with him for at least an hour every day since she found out about the scars on his legs. They didn't need to talk if Aero didn't want to, they could sit in silence if they wanted to. If they did talk, it could be about whatever they wanted. It didn't have to be about Aero's mental anguish, which he was thankful for since he didn't wanna talk about that all the time.
Dia did have some therapy sessions once per week scheduled, like today, so she could try to help him through his problems. Nobody besides them knew about it, at least Aero didn't think so. It was usually later in the day so there wouldn't be any interruptions. She suggested alternatives to self harm, such as drawing on himself where he wanted to harm or using a rubber band. She wasn't sure how well it would work considering where he cut, but she didn't think it would hurt to include it. They seemed alright to do, he supposed. It was better than what she'd been doing to himself at least.
After a while, it started to feel tedious, like it was more of a chore he needed to do than anything else. It was from lack of motivation, supposedly, but he sometimes just wanted the sessions to stop after a certain point. It was hard to keep going, even if it was for himself, for those around him.
She took notice of his look and wrote it down. He wondered if she had to write down each and every single little thing. It wasn't like she was drawing something, that would be unlike her. He lightly groaned as he repositioned himself. She looked at him again. This time, she sighed and put down the notebook.
"Aerodynamic, if you feel like taking a break in some way, you can tell me." Dia said. "I know it doesn't seem like I care that much, but believe me, I really do."
"I know, but…" Aero looked away.
He moved his bare legs closer to his chest. His tail wrapped around them. They feel the light indication of their scars on the back of them. His mind was still plagued with those thoughts and urges, as of recently even more than before. It wasn't like they'd hurt himself while they were around somebody else. It was the last thing he wanted to do in front of Dia, or in front of anyone else. That prevented him from doing any more harm on himself so far, no matter how strong the urges were. Besides, he was clean for months now, there was no reason to ruin that.
Diamond stood up. "Let's take a break then. We can resume in thirty."
She went to one of the bookshelves.
"We can take a short flight, or I could lend you something of mine if you want. Maybe we could just relax in silence."
She listed off a few more things. He couldn't bring himself to focus on what she said. Looking at her lips didn't help at all, he couldn't read them properly. It felt incredibly rude, but his brain couldn't process it properly at that point. Aero looked down at the back part of his legs. He ran the tip of his fingers across the scars. They lightly bit their lower lip.
He was so lost in his thoughts that they just moved without thinking about it.
"Aerodynamic?"
She heard her, but they didn't listen. It didn't register.
"Aerodynamic, don't!"
The last thing he remembered seeing was Diamond running at them and their lower legs feeling warm before he blacked out.
Diamond immediately picked Aerodynamic up and ran out the room.
She ran as fast as she could to the medical bay. Her heartbeat increased tremendously. He was bleeding horrifically from the deep wounds he inflicted on himself. Blood covered where he cut and below it. It was all over her right hand and arm. Realistically he didn't lose too much blood yet, but it looked like someone attempted homicide in that room. Aerodynamic needed his wounds to be tended to immediately before the blood loss ended up being a Class Three Haemorrhage.
"Move out of my bloody way!" Her voice nearly became a screech.
Everybody moved to the sides. Their faces ran pale when they saw Aerodynamic. Diamond could hear a couple pairs of footsteps behind her, but she didn't stop for even a second. She needed to stop the bleeding, make sure he was stable, and that he wouldn't perish first before worrying about the others.
She didn't know what happened. Everything should've been fine. Diamond looked away for one minute, and the next thing she knew, the whirring of a saw blade filled the air. She couldn't make it in time to stop him. If Aerodynamic perished that night, it would be her fault. She should've kept the session going, she should've asked how bad the urges were earlier, so many things she should've done instead but didn't.
The only people she cared about was her family, and she couldn't even do what she was bloody good at well enough for him.
It felt like an eternity when she got to the medical bay. Diamond moved as calmly and quickly as she could. She had to be careful too, she couldn't afford to be reckless whatsoever. One wrong move and everything could go south. This would be one of the only things she'd ever feel guilty about if he perished.
Her hands simply moved as she cleaned up the blood and ceased the haemorrhaging. She treated the wounds present on his calves. Once the cuts were treated and she checked to see if the amount of blood was at a stable level or if he needed a blood transfusion—it thankfully never got close to forty percent blood loss, otherwise they would've been in trouble—she checked to see if there were other wounds on his body. Nothing else on him needed treatment, so that was one less thing to worry about there.
Diamond slumped down with a huge sigh of relief escaping her lips. She looked at her now green hands; she'd already taken off the gloves after the treatment. They trembled, going alongside her high heart rate. Of course she was going to have anxiety about this, this was her brother here. He could've perished from how recklessly quick he swung his tail there. It would've been her fault as well because Aerodynamic was under her watch and care at that moment. She didn't know what she would do with herself if they just perished like that. It felt weird for her to even think that.
She should go wash the blood off her hands. They didn't need to see how much they bled just from looking at her hands.
Diamond got up, washed her hands, and went to leave the room. Once she unlocked the door, it opened up immediately. She was greeted with everyone else on the other side. Her parents were there as well, with some looking like they just woke up. Either she was that loud or somebody woke them to alert them of what happened. They were all concerned and confused.
"Dia, what happened?" Sprx was the first to ask.
"Aerodynamic cut his legs and I had to treat him right away, prematurely ending our session-"
"Wait, session?"
"He cut himself?!"
Everyone started talking at once, all with understandable confusion and worry. Their words mixed together and she couldn't make out what they were saying. Chiro put his hand up and they stopped talking almost immediately. He took a deep breath.
"Diamond…" Chiro bent down and put his hands on her shoulders. "You need to tell us everything."
She looked behind her. That bloody bastard, she told him to tell them at some point. Diamond deeply sighed. Aerodynamic better not complain about her telling them, they deserved to know everything and he didn't tell them. She looked back at Chiro.
"May we talk somewhere else? I don't want Aerodynamic to wake up from us talking."
He nodded and they went to a different room. She told them everything, from the moment she knew about the self destruction up until now. Before anyone could say something about hiding it from them, she explained that as well. She even tried to explain it in a way that Kaminari would understand it as well, since she was right there and she didn't want to leave. They didn't really say how upset they were that she didn't tell them immediately, but she could tell.
Everyone was concerned and wished Aerodynamic told them sooner.
Aero felt something touch his face, something wet.
She slowly opened her eyes. Dia was above him with tears welled up in her eyes and crumbs around her mouth. That didn't seem real, so they lightly smacked their cheek to see if it was a dream. Dia never cried, it had to be one.
Dia slowly moved his hand away. Then she smacked his arm. If she hit him any harder, there would be a dent on the upper part of his arm. A few more of her tears fell. She forced some laughter out with a quivering smile.
"You bloody arse, don't ever do that again, you hear me?" Dia hiccuped. "Next time, I'll have Soma perform some necromancy so I can murder you myself."
It took a moment for Aero to start quietly chuckling. Yeah, it was the Dia she knew, just with more tears than he thought there would be. He sat up and wiped the tears that fell onto his face. She instantly put her hands on their shoulders.
"Don't you get up, Mister." If her face wasn't flushed and teary, he would've thought it was an act. "You still need to heal up."
"Right, um…" Aero scratched the back of her head. "What happened? It's a blur for me."
Diamond wiped the tears off her face and cleared her throat.
"You cut yourself again, and it was a lot more serious this time. You passed out. If I didn't get you in here in time, you would've died from blood loss. Next time, try to not go deep like that, and no veins." Diamond scolded. "Ever since I initially treated your wounds Father Gibson and I have been keeping an eye on you ever since."
Aero's eyes widened. He quickly turned around to find Gibson, who slept in the corner. She put her hand up to her mouth. They stared at her legs.
That meant everyone knew about it now. They knew what he did to himself. He weakly pulled his legs to his chest. Every worst thought ran through his mind as tears started to form. If they knew, then that must mean they thought the worst of him. After they take away his weapon, they'll ignore him, they'll act like he never existed, they'll-
"Hey, hey," Diamond cupped her face, "don't cry. Whatever is going through your bloody mind, it's not true. I promise you. They were upset we didn't tell them, but they want to help."
Her eyebrows furrowed and her eyes slightly closed.
"Don't you even deny them, Aerodynamic. If I find out you have turned their help away, so help me-"
"I won't, I won't!" Aero put his hands up.
"Good. I'm afraid you can't walk for a while, by the way, not until your legs heal up completely." Dia informed. "You'll need to be carried to and from areas of the Super Robot, not to mention have your food brought to you."
Aero slowly nodded. It wasn't like he was happy about it, he was gonna be more of a burden to everyone, but there was nothing he could do. She patted his cheek, knowing what he thought.
"Don't worry about it. If you're hungry, I can bring you your dinner. If not, you can have my snacks."
Diamond pointed to Aero's other side. There were open chip bags, one being an unfinished Lay's bag. The others were empty but that one. There were even a couple unopened bags.
Okay, that wasn't right, Dia either wasn't herself because of what he did, or she was an impersonator.
…Just to be safe, he wasn't gonna touch the chips.
"Yeah, I'd like that. I do kinda feel hungry." Aero accepted.
"Then I'll go get it. After that, I'll bring you to bed, but don't expect me to carry you around after tonight." Dia replied.
She left med bay. The door whooshed open and it closed shut. Gibson was still sound asleep in the corner, like nothing could wake him up. He stared at the snacks by his side.
Okay, maybe eating the rest of those Lay's wouldn't hurt.
Aero slowly opened his eyes.
He felt so drained from yesterday. Emotionally, mentally, physically, everything. He didn't even wanna get up. Maybe she could get a few more hours of sleep.
She turned around only to be greeted by almost all of her siblings. The only one who wasn't there was Diamond. They jumped back and his back went up against the wall. He didn't expect everybody to get so… close. It was like they were waiting for him to wake up. It felt a little creepy, honestly, even if it was likely they didn't mean it as such.
"How are you feeling, Aero?" Marino asked. "Did you sleep well?"
"If not, we can let you thleep a while longer."
"I can make you something comfortable to wear until your jacket gets cleaned."
"I won't mind makin' ya breakfast. As long as it's reasonable, of course."
"I could make you a remote control airplane if you want me to. You know, so you're not bored laying there."
"We'll do whatever you want us to do, anything that'll make you feel better." Soma smiled.
All their tails swayed. They were eager to help him out in any way they could. Aero moved away from the wall and sat up. He pressed his lips together while tears formed in his eyes. Everyone noticed and their eagerness disappeared.
He immediately tried to get rid of it by hugging one of them tightly. His tail lightly wagged. He sobbed. Everyone hugged him back. Kaminari hugged back the tightest.
What did Aero ever do to deserve a family like this?
