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The next morning brought in the usual announcement of a new level being open to the survivors. Breakfast also attracted the usual crowd that came about the survivors. The only exception had been Aero- who X knew wouldn't be joining them that morning, and let the others know just in case.

And just as Aero had predicted, Axl wanted to check on her.

"Someone has to!" he reasoned. "After everything that happened with Marino- we need to be taking better care of each other!"

"And what if being alone is what Aero needs right now?" X challenged right back.

Axl shrunk for a moment. In the next, he stood even taller.

"No one grieves alone." he decided.

There was nothing X could do to argue with that, but it still brought a point home.

"Let's just give her some time." X offered. "Let's explore the new floor Lumine offered us."

You could see in Axl's soured face that it was the last thing he wanted to do. It took a moment for him to compromise with himself.

"Alright," the younger man sighed, "Let's go."

. . .

The fourth floor was far more than what they ever could have expected. Calling it a floor at all was a bit odd too, considering it was the rooftop.

"It's a whole jungle up here!" Axl exclaimed first. His whole face lit up as he went from tree to tree, even a flower or two, like a child in a toy store. It was enough to make X wonder if Axl had never seen natural vegetation before.

"Oh! Plums!" Axl happily exclaimed before running over to a plum tree.

The young man hummed as he looked over both ripe and blossoming plums. He let out a noise of joy when he found just the right one. Plucking it with expert ease, Axl tested its weight a bit by giving it small tosses in the air.

Then, without any other warning, he jammed his thumb into the fruit.

"What are you doing?" X wondered. He was seeing this right, wasn't he? Axl was absolutely trying to dig his thumb into the plum.

"Trying to pick the plum seed out with just my thumb," Axl claimed, as if it were a natural thing to do. "You know, like Jack Horner?"

It, understandably, took X awhile to understand what Axl was really trying to get at.

"Jack Horner had a Christmas pie, Axl. He found a plum with his thumb, not pulled its seed out."

Axl's face twisted into one of pure concentration now.

"I'm in too deep now. Come back in a few minutes."

X couldn't help but snort. Never did X had to doubt Axl's commitment to the bit.

With Axl doing his thing, X wandered around the area. Beside the trees were the fruits, then vegetables. They all looked so tempting that passing by the grapes made X's mouth water. Looking around, X ended up noticing a pair of gardening shears laying on the ground. He curiously picked them up and looked them over. They looked to be in pretty decent shape.

X then looked to his left. He could easily see basil and cloves growing. Behind them were other herbs. Getting an idea, X tried to remember what rooibos looked like in the book he and Iris had found the other day. His intuition was dead on- whoever had placed this garden here had thought of every plant that the test subjects would have needed.

Now if only X knew which part of the plant to cut...

"What are you doing?" Axl wondered as he came over. The younger fella put his hands on his hips as he looked X over. "I kinda figured you might be a plant guy, but you're treating those plants like your firstborn kid."

X offered a half shrug in reply.

"I'm trying to cut some rooibos." X said, simply enough.

To this, Axl tilted his head in thought.

"For Aero?"

The thought made X pause.

"Yeah." he ended up nodding. "For Aero."

Axl gave an absent nod back. He then decided to squat down next to X and watched his older peer work.

"Wish we could cheer everyone up like these will to Aero." Axl hummed to himself. "Imagine getting Zero to smile."

"Yeah." X agreed, successfully cutting back enough of the rooibos. He admired his handiwork for a bit before realizing that he didn't have a place to hold the rooibos in.

Sensing this, Axl sprung back up with a quick, "Wait here, I'll be back!"

X did so, and in waiting Axl came back with a small flower press in his hands.

"We can hold the rooibos in here!" he declared, well out of breath from rushing. "Besides, they should probably dry out a bit before they get made into tea anyway."

"Right," X nodded.

With the rooibos safe, the boys didn't know what to do next. Axl looked up at X. He tilted his head as he studied the other, then quickly shook it. He wasn't going to voice his suspicion out loud- not yet, atleast.

Instead he opted to muse, "You know, if Zero was here, I would have thrown a lemon at him by now."

The bewilderment on X's face was exactly what he had hoped for.

"What? Why?"

"Because of that sour face he makes all the time!"

Axl even demonstrated by twisting his face into one imitating sourness and the look Zero usually gave. The absurdity of it caused X to laugh. Which, in turn, led Axl to a laughter of his own.

"I have an idea." Axl proposed. "Let's get some nice looking flowers and use them to decorate the tables in the cafeteria."

X thought it over for a moment.

"That's... not a bad idea." he admitted. Axl beamed with pride at the approval.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's get a pickin'!"

X smiled as he and Axl went toward the flower shrubs and decided on the best ones to take. At one point, X had been distracted by the irises. Reminded of their time at the library, X plucked a few, along with a couple white tulips, to make a personal bouquet for a certain someone. By the time Axl had plucked enough flowers to hide his face, X had also secured a few oranges to take back with them.

Setting up the bouquets would have gone a lot smoother had Axl taken them in trips instead of all at once. Yet the energetic young man insisted on doing things the more 'interesting' way. In any case, the two were finished just around lunchtime. Everyone but Aero filed in around the same time- their reactions coming just as quickly.

"These bouquets are beautiful!" Iris delighted with a clap of her hands.

"I made one just for you." X told her. Her face went to complete surprise then.

"You did?"

X nodded before bringing out the bouquet he had made for her. Iris gasped as the present. She was almost afraid to take it from him. Fortunately, X carefully brought it over to her and Iris took the cue to cradle the flowers in her arms.

"Thank you, X." Iris blushed. "I... I don't know what to say."

X smiled, grateful that Iris was enjoying the flowers.

"Gee, now I'm jealous." Alia teased, coming up from behind X to give him a light elbow bump. "Are there any flowers up there for the rest of us?"

"Y-yeah," X agreed- his face flushed from Alia's teasing. "I can escort you up if you want."

"Urg, you're too charming!" Alia jokingly whined. "Stop it, X. Stop it!"

Her overdramatics got a laugh out of everyone in the room. Some were more reluctant than others, of course.

With the bouquet introductions out of the way, everyone set about to preparing their own lunch. Zero in particular waited for Alia, Axl, and Layer to leave the kitchen before making his own meal. X took a deep breath in before heading over. It suddenly felt like what he was about to do was very, very stupid.

"I also got these for you, Zero." X said as he presented the oranges to his friend. Zero looked at them, then at X. His face was hard to read.

"Oranges?"

"Blood oranges," X sheepishly corrected.

The look of confusion, and the thinnest of disgust, made its way to Zero's face.

"Why?"

X gave half a shrug.

"Axl wanted to throw lemons at you." he said, almost a bit too nonchalantly. "But oranges are better for the juice. Blood oranges don't taste much different, and they're your favorite color on the inside. I thought they would be perfect for you."

Zero looked at X. Every part of him wanted to find some hint of a lie in the other, but couldn't find any. All Zero could see was complete sincerity.

"Alia's right- you need to stop being so..." he started to mumble, but then shook his head. "Never mind."

X curiously tilted his head. He wondered for a moment if Zero would have said something other than 'charming' or even a more demure 'kind'.

"I think they're a nice gift." Iris decided for Zero. She didn't make a full meal- only a slice of buttered toast and a small glass of apple juice. Iris then gave Zero a nudge before teasing, "We were just talking about juice options around here. Not fresh enough for poor, healthy Zero. No sir."

Zero's face became a deep shade of pink as Iris and X laughed at his expense. It left the impression that X was doing the right thing after all. Not only that, but that only left one more person X had a delivery for...

. . .

X had never noticed how much of a wooded scent rooibos was until now. It didn't seem to calm him much. If anything, he wanted to be back on the rooftop garden and pretend that everything was normal. That there was an outside word they could get back to. That there were people out there looking for them, concerned about them, to wonder where so many young adults had gone to at once. Did anyone know they were here? Did anyone know that half of them were dead?

X didn't want to think about it as he reached Aero's door.

He knocked and patiently waited for her to answer. The quiet moments in waiting almost made him anxious. Had something happened to her? Could something happen to her while alone? The options flew through his mind without warning.

Seeing the door slightly crack open brought instant relief.

"X?" Aero wondered as she poked her head out of the door, her voice groggy and exhausted. "What are you...?"

Without a word, X carefully pulled out the rooibos stalks he had cut. Aero looked at them for a moment, then looked back up at X.

"How..?" came the next groggy question.

"There's a rooftop garden." X explained. "Axl and I picked some flowers to make bouquets this morning. I also decided to pick some stuff out to give to you, Zero, and Iris as well. The rooibos is for you. In case you, you know, wanted to make something more fresh for your tea or something."

Aero blinked. Then a long yawn escaped her lips. A smile soon after replaced it as X fought the urge to yawn back.

"Thank you." she said. "I mean it."

Still giving that drowsy smile, she moved closer to X to take the rooibos from him. X's cheeks flared over how close she was. It became worse when she didn't immediately step away from him. Her brown eyes bore into his greens. X tried to say something -anything- to make sure the moment didn't end. It was just so... pleasant. And nerve wracking. And exciting. And...

A frown made its way to Aero's features.

"I... I'm sorry." she then said. "I didn't mean..."

She gave her head a shake.

"Thank you." she once more said before slinking back into her room.

X let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding in. In trying to process what had just happened, he leaned his back against her door and stared at the ceiling. He closed his eyes- still seeing her there and so close. He barely wanted to open them again, but knew he had to come back to reality.

Him and Aero, in a place like this?

How ridiculous.