In which a feeling of doom can be a prophecy, or a symptom. Either way, being sick sucks.

…This was not supposed to be a sick fic, I was not planning on this it kinda just started happening, why did this happen again in one of my longer fics, WTF…

In other news, did you know that I'd originally planned to kill Giro? It was closer to canon, and I'm really a sucker for a 'everyone lives' happy ending. I was heavily considering challenging myself to avoid that… But I chickened out. And I'm glad I did. Giros's getting some damn good mileage here.

Some people who make a massive fuss over the tiniest of inconveniences of injuries go utterly silent when something is truly wrong. Some people do the opposite. Pay attention to those you care for…

Best of luck in the new year everyone. I hope this helps start it off right.

Waking up was hell. Aile didn't remember falling asleep.

Vent was already up of course. He gave his sister a worried look when she lagged behind, groaning miserably as she got up for the day. Her arm where she got her shots was sore as hell and hard to move, whereas yesterday it had only been a bit stiff, making her curse a few times as she banged around their room clumsily. Vent frowned, "Hey sis… you okay? Did you sleep alright?"

"Uh…. Yeah. Fine. Just fine." Sure, everything felt bad and she was so tired she couldn't focus her eyesight, plus her throat hurt, but Vent didn't need to know that. He'd just fuss over her unnecessarily. She reasoned that it was just a reaction to the vaccines she'd gotten. Muguet had told her that her body would react as though she was sick… but she wasn't actually sick, so she'd be fine. Maybe not as fine as normal, but good enough. Her brother didn't look convinced by her words. Aile ignored his suspicious glances and got up to raid her brother's belongings for fresh clothes instead. If this bothered him he didn't say anything. Instead he told her he was going to get breakfast, he'd be back in a minute, yadda yadda. Aile shooed him out the door and got dressed, stoutly ignoring how long it took her.

Vent arrived back shortly with a piece of toast hanging out of his mouth, plus a couple of plates of breakfast. The dishes he held were filled with some fluffy looking omelettes, and had cutlery shoved into the top. This particular food was something Aile had heard about but never really eaten, so she took one when he handed it to her. Aile gave the omelette a single look before the feeling of her stomach turning made her decide against eating it. Just the sight of it was unpleasant, much less the strong smell of cheese and onions. The greasy scent nearly made her puke right then and there. "I… I'm not really hungry this morning…" She tried to take a bite of the omelette anyway, just so that her brother wouldn't worry. The taste was not at all appealing to her so she set her fork down and gave up on the endeavour.

Vent gave her a startled look, "Are you sure? You've barely eaten anything in days!"

"I don't eat a lot normally anyways," Aile admitted. "But today, just…. No."

Vent stared at her solemnly. A frown grew on his features, "Hey Aile, uh…. You're not looking so hot."

"Just tired. It's fine," Aile reassured with a sniffle. Her nose was running. Vent had mentioned a mission, and a bit of tiredness wasn't going to slow her down. Er, well… Okay. Maybe it would slow her down just a little. She'd probably let Vent go ahead of her when they were out and about today. "Any new missions from Prairie today?"

"I haven't gone to check yet," Vent answered haltingly, "but if you're going to come with me on missions, well… I don't think you're up for it right now."

"Don't tell me what I can or can't do," Aile grumped half-heartedly, "I can go!" Sure her voice sounded like shit, but she was gonna ignore that.

Vent looked exasperated, "Aile…"

"Vent," Aile answered cheekily, mimicking him. She blew him a raspberry at his curmudgeoned frown. In retort, Vent stuck his tongue out and gave a chuckle. "Look, I'll go see if there's anything urgent."

"Yeah you do that!" Aile began. Then she thought better of it, "Hold on, wait, I'm coming too." No way she was gonna let her brother pull a fast one on her. She was gonna find out for herself if there were any missions.

"It's okay Aile, I can do this no prob!"

"Nuh uh, not getting rid of me that easily!" She hopped to her feet, blinked off a dizzy spell, and led her brother out the door despite his protests.

Aile decided to forgo the teleporter thing and marched her way straight to the bridge, determination holding her steady. Prairie looked like she'd been caught off guard by Aile's sudden approach. Heh. Guess the mighty commander was still a bit alarmed by having the one and only Imp of Cinq Ville on her ship! "Hey crap-hat, got any missions for us?"

Prairie's nose twitched at these words. Aile caught herself sniffing again as the blonde looked at her, looked over at Vent (who was frowning with concern and whose eyes darted rapidly back and forth between the two females), paused, and turned back to Aile. The commander made a decision of some sort. "...No. Nothing has come up."

This was a lie. Something had come up, but it was nothing that couldn't wait until later, as Aile eventually would eventually find out. But she didn't know that at the time and so acted accordingly. "Aw man! Boring!" Aile's throat was starting to hurt. Well. Hurt more than it did waking up, anyways. She gave Vent an amiably frustrated grimace. "There's gotta be something we can do? I'll get bored sitting around all day!" She forced herself to ignore how strained her voice sounded.

"A day of rest is quite necessary on occasion," Prairie offered firmly.

Vent looked thoughtful, "Well… oh! I suppose I, or uh, we, could go see if Giro needs anything. Giro Express might be falling behind a bit."

Oh right, Aile thought. Vent and Giro had been delivery guys. Doing some easy odd jobs instead of a full-blown mission wasn't a bad idea, not that she was going to admit that out loud. Her pride was at stake! Still, she didn't want to talk anymore because her throat hated her right now, so instead she shooed Vent along with a gesture and followed him.

It didn't take them much time or effort to find Giro as he was hanging out in a room he'd just been assigned. This made sense, Aile supposed. He couldn't just keep bunking in the commander's quarters. Well. Maybe he could if they were into each other, but Aile got a more sibling vibe out of their relationship. She might be completely wrong about it though. Ah well, not her business. The pair explained the plan. Or rather, Vent explained the plan and Aile tried to argue, half-heartedly, that she was perfectly fine.

"Hey Dad, Aile was wanting to go on a mission again, but I was thinking we could catch up a bit on Giro express stuff instead. Something a little easier for today, y'know?"

"Don't need easy. 'M fine…"

Giro was clearly biased. He instantly agreed with Vent, nodding as he spoke, "That is a good idea Vent. We're indeed a bit behind. Perhaps you can check in on Sho at the office, I think he has some files for me. And Rush! When was the last time you gave him his treats? Very neglectful of you, Vent," Giro joked.

"Oh yeah! I still owe him a bone, don't I?"

Aile was confused, "You want to… give a guy a bone?"

"Oh," Vent laughed, "not a guy!" At Aile's confused look he explained, "Well, not a human guy. Rush is our office dog. He's such a good boy."

Dogs were super cute, but Aile would get a cat if she ever wanted a pet. There was significantly less maintenance involved. "A dog? …Didn't know you had a pet…?"

"Yup!" Vent chuckled. Then his eyes brightened, "Oh man! I bet Rush would go nuts if he were to meet you. After all, I'm his favourite person, so he'll have to love you too!"

"As if. He's my loyal dog," Giro bragged in retort. The two males bantered a bit as Aile shook her head at their antics. She gave Vent an expectant glance.

Vent broke off the jesting at Aile's look, bringing himself back to the task at hand, "Anyways, like I said. We need some easier tasks for today. Got anything else in mind other than papers from Sho? Something easy for Aile? I keep telling her she looks sick, but she won't listen." He explained, giving Aile a good-natured push.

She pushed him back, complaining about the jest, "I'm perfectly fine, Vent… Quit babying me!"

"You are looking a little under the weather, Aile," Giro noticed, concern instantly appearing on his features. "Perhaps you can rest today. It's been a hard week!"

"I'm fine!" Aile growled. This statement was immediately contradicted when Aile had to loudly sniffle as her nostrils began running again. She wiped her nose into her upper sleeve to hopefully rub the worst of it off.

Giro handed her a tissue just a little too late, "Well then, take a break for your brother's sake. He's been running himself a bit ragged too."

"Dad, I'm fine!" Vent exclaimed. Then he clued in at a pointedly raised eyebrow from Giro and shuffled around abashedly, "Er, uh, I mean. You are totally right? I'm tired too?"

Aile grimaced, "Okay, okay, okay! I get it you jerks… Easy missions today." Aile was secretly glad for a day of simple errands. She was very tired, and the nasty headache that had started blooming in her skull wouldn't be good for her concentration. "Any other Giro Express jobs that need doing, Vent?"

"Well, I have some mail to deliver," Vent interjected, "among some other tasks."

"Deliver mail. Sure. Sounds easy peasy."

"There's also a cold pearl or something I have to get from the ice lake-"

"-What?!" Aile knew which lake he was talking about. The one where she fell off a cliff and nearly froze to death, "An ice pearl? Vent… I know I said I wanted to follow you on missions, but screw that. You're on your own there. I'm not freezing my ass off for a dumb shiny rock."

"Well, I'll be doing that along with everything else today. I have a lot of errands to catch up on," Vent explained. Giro nodded along as he continued, "I mean, it's all really tedious, are you sure you wanna go out to a cold lake for a pearl? And then deliver love letters between a potential couple?"

"Love letters? Is that the mail you're delivering?!" Ew, she wanted nothing to do with a lovesick pair of idiots!

Vent was definitely playing up the tedium of the jobs. He explained all the various chores he'd been falling behind on, and each description made Aile's scowl worse and worse. Aile didn't like it, but she liked the thought of being someone's errand boy way less. Giro smiled slyly at his son's theatrics, "You know, Aile. None of these are very dangerous jobs. I know you want to go along with Vent to protect him, but I highly doubt he'll need protection on such simple quests."

"You assholes…" Aile knew bloody well what they were doing. She hated it. But her fatigue was working against her, and so was some nausea. If she had to deal with a pair of losers getting all kissy face with each other, she was going to puke. Literally.

"You've been working so hard. Take a nap! You're not employed by Giro express, Aile. Technically you're just tagging along with Vent." Giro got a look of smug victory and adjusted his glasses, "Because of that I, unfortunately, can't pay you anything for your work."

That clinched it. Aile wasn't doing jobby shit for free, no sir! "Ugh! Fine! I, uh… have stuff I want to ask people about around here anyways!" She stormed towards the door, feeling irritable and gross and too tired to argue. She knew she'd been manipulated and she wanted nothing to do with them at the moment.

"Aile, you really should lay down for a bit," Giro eyed her worriedly, "you're shaking."

Aile was so sick of being treated like a weakling. "Not interested, Not-Pops!" She taunted as she left the room, ditching both males eagerly. She didn't want two dads, so if Giro was going to insist on nagging her, she was going to nag him back. He wasn't her father or 'pops' despite all the stupid legal stuff... So she called him not-pops instead.

Hah. Take that.

Aile had no idea why this issue was so important to her or why she was so proud of a lame insult like that, but thinking hurt right now so she was going to avoid it. She had more important things to do, like see if she could get any information on Weil. Of course she couldn't just ask people directly. That would be stupid! So instead Aile took some time to brainstorm. She figured that if she asked the Guardians about the history of the organization, citing some excuse that she wanted to learn more about their founding, then she might be able to hear about Weil! And if she was interested in such a historical character, well, that was only her paying attention to the story, wasn't it? Nothing suspicious at all! She was a genius.

Only her plan fell flat on its face before it ever had a chance to get anywhere. Either Prairie had said something to everyone about her being sick (which was false, she wasn't sick!), or word had spread on its own, because every time Aile tried to start a conversation her efforts instantly went astray. They all but ignored her questions to instead ask if she was okay. A couple of them inquired about personal information as well, annoying Aile even further. No matter where she went, if there was a Guardian nearby, they asked her if she was alright without fail. They told her she was pale, or flushed, or not looking good. She'd had enough of it. She was getting out of this stupid, stuffy Guardian base! But then she saw Fleuve in the transporter room 'repairing' the teleporter. He didn't even get halfway through his fake excuses of repairs or maintenance or whatever before Aile stomped off to try Plan B.

The brunette thought she'd finally found some reprieve from the harassment of the other Guardians when she escaped to the deck. The cool air was really nice on her burning skin, and no one else was around to heckle her. It's like everyone thought she was a baby to be coddled today! She hated it! Unfortunately for Aile, the deck was not as abandoned as she'd hoped. Shortly after her escape, the massive man known as Thon appeared before her. How had someone so bulky snuck up on her?! The wind must have muffled his footsteps.

He didn't bandy his words. "You look pale."

"Piss off."

Thon's dark eyebrows furrowed. He gently gripped her shoulder with one hand and held her forehead with the other. Aile had no idea why her reflexes were so shit, as she should have been able to easily dodge the grab. She feebly tried to push him away, "Hey! I told you to piss off!" The simple action made her dizzy however, her eyes unable to focus from the pain in her skull.

"You're burning up!" Thon hissed, ignoring her protests. The next thing Aile knew she'd been picked up like an errant kitten, or maybe a sack of potatoes. Thon carried her back into the interior of the ship despite her threatening to rip his hair out, screeching in fury, and kicking him. Aile complained the whole time he dragged her through the base. But even Aile realized that her struggles were a lot less competent than usual. Thon had no problem carting her all the way back to Giro's quarters, where the glasses-wearing man looked up with bafflement when Thon suddenly barged into his room.

"Giro. She's really sick."

Giro's expression of stupor fell away. He took one look at Aile, apparently saw the same thing in her face that everyone else did and she didn't, and sprang to his feet. "Aile! What are you doing wandering about? You're not looking good at all!"

What the hell was her face advertising anyways? "Am I pale or not? Make up your mind people!" Aile snapped, tired of everyone making judgements about her and how she looked. So what if she was a little dizzy! She was fine! It wasn't her fault that today was horrible!

Giro apparently didn't agree with that train of thought, "No Aile, you are definitely looking flushed-"

"I'm red in the face because you're all pissing me off! Fuck you!"

Thon galloped over as Giro sat up from the bed, the bigger man pushing Aile to lay down on it despite her protests. How dare he force her where she didn't want to go! She struggled relentlessly, even if she was weaker than normal. This wasn't safe! An unfamiliar male was holding her down! Then her focus suddenly changed when an intense wave of nausea overtook her. Aile dove for a nearby garbage can and barfed up a breakfast she'd never actually eaten. Everything hurt. Her stomach hated her and her throat burned and she couldn't think straight because she was so dizzy. Today was really, really miserable. Aile sniffed piteously, completely overwhelmed. "...I want my Daddy."

Giro skillfully directed her to sit back on the bed, "Let us know where he is. We can go get him."

Vent would never forgive her if Giro got killed trying to fetch her dad. Omega wouldn't tolerate any sort of intrusion into his territory, especially if said intruder was a complete stranger claiming that Aile was in trouble. She wanted her Daddy regardless. But she couldn't tell anyone! The misery of her body made tears spring to her eyes, and her conflicting emotions broke the damn until she was sobbing quietly. "I can't. I want Daddy. I haven't t-talked to him in days! But I can't!"

"Please. Let me help you."

"I can't!" She cried, "You'd kill him if you knew! You all hate us!"

Everyone hated mavericks. Everyone! She and Daddy were mavericks. And though he was inarguably the strongest person, nay, the strongest God in the world, even Omega could be felled by cheap tactics like what the Neo Arcadians and Zero had done. Omega could beat anyone in combat. But she realized, with horror, that no one had to actually fight Omega to kill him. Cédre could make bombs and blow up the caves they lived in, and that would be that. Aile wanted to believe that Cédre wouldn't do that. But Cédre was a Guardian. Maybe she would.

Giro sighed heavily and sat down beside her. Him and Thon exchanged some sort of glance before Thon left, stating that he was going to fetch Muguet. Aile figured he was also going to tell Prairie what was going on. That crap-hatted jerk would probably love to hear that Aile was suffering. Aile hated the Guardians. Aile hated Prairie. She flopped bonelessly to the bed, too tired to sit up or fight anymore. Giro gently stroked her back as she curled up on her side, moaning in despair. His gentle voice soothed, "I don't hate you, Aile. I won't kill your dad. I promise."

"Don't make a promise you can't keep. You're a Guardian, and he's a maverick. We're both mavericks!"

"You're not a maverick."

"I am! I am a maverick! I want to be a maverick," she cried, because the world was a horrible place and hated people like her, and so she had to be a horrible person too, to protect herself.

Giro gave her a thoughtful, sad look. "Aile... Why do you want to be a maverick?"

Aile sniffed, She reached for a box of tissues that Giro produced for her, blew heavily into one, and dropped it callously. She finally replied, "Because… b-because I don't want to be normal. Normal people are s-stupid and weak, and th-they get hurt and die! Like m-mom did…"

If she'd cared to look at Giro's face, she would have seen unmistakable heartbreak in his features. Instead all she heard was him reaching for some blankets and tucking her in. He did something that darkened all that hateful light that always came in through the stupid, massive windows of the Grand Nuage, swapped the garbage bin by the side of the bed for a bigger one that had been in the bathroom, and a few other things Aile was too exhausted to care about. He winced a few times as he did so. His cane knocked into a door frame at some point and he got angry at it. Aile didn't pay attention, her eyes too heavy for her to keep open any more. At some point she felt his hands thread through her hair, and didn't make the connection that some stranger was touching her. She simply hummed in relief, because her dad sometimes petted her head like that when she was younger, or needed help falling asleep. On rare occasions he'd do it when Aile did something that made him very pleased and amiable. Like when she'd gotten mad at how messy her room had been because she'd tripped over her own toys twice in one day, and so she'd cleaned up all her things without having been asked to do it. Her memories of that day were faded, but she would never forget the feeling of pride that had enveloped her at his approval. The nostalgia was soothing.

That's when Aile lost consciousness.

She woke up sporadically, sometimes fitful and panicked or ready to puke. She saw Muguet a few times. Aile was prompted to drink something foul-tasting every once in a while, though the flavour didn't really register. Another time she woke up screaming for Vent, because she somehow knew that Vent had left on a mission by himself and died in a fire, only Vent was suddenly there and hugging her, very much alive. She yelled that he wasn't supposed to go on missions without her. He pacified her when he reminded her that he'd promised to only do some small jobs while she was sick.

And sick she was. Aile was normally pretty good at denial, just like her dad was, but this illness was way too obvious to ignore any more.

The next couple of days were spent sleeping in irregular intervals, eating the barest scraps of meals offered to her because she felt nauseous just looking at food, or listening to Vent and Giro's calming voices droning on in the background. She only heard half of what they said as they updated her on what her brother had been doing. Once she woke up to Giro brushing her hair and saying that he hoped the brush was okay, he didn't know which type she liked, and so on. Aile ignored him and went back to bed.

Aile hated being weak like this. She hated being sick and vulnerable and unprotected, especially since Daddy wasn't there to guard her. But Vent was always checking up on her, and Giro was there too. Vent trusted Giro, and so she had to as well. It's not like she had any choice in the matter seeing as she'd crashed in his room. Muguet showed up on occasion too, and Aile was glad that such a steadfast nurse was so readily available. Even Prairie was being helpful; Aile had meekly asked if anyone had a pillow or something she could cuddle since Vent was so busy, and the next time she woke up she was holding a plushie cyber-elf that she was told had been loaned to her by the Guardian commander. She cried some more, then went back to sleep.

Why was everyone being so nice to her?! The villainous Imp of Cinq Ville!?

Even the biometals were checking in on her. Model L had helped cool off some face cloths for her to use, which was ridiculous for someone of Leviathan's standing and power. Sure, her dad had used his sword's fire abilities to light some campfires or heat some food back when Aile was younger, but that was because he was her dad! Why would Model L care so much about her? Then again, Aile was sick. She deserved to be spoiled by everyone, especially when she was ill. Still, it was nice that someone other than her father realized this.

Thankfully the illness passed soon enough. By the third day, Aile was able to sit up comfortably in the morning as Vent complained about his job and gave her a cinnamon bun that she actually managed to eat (because it was a gods-damned cinnamon bun, and would have been sacrilege to waste it), and Giro regaled her with the tales of some particularly unlikeable customers that both her and Vent were appalled and amused by. She was still quick to fall asleep, though that may have been her own natural laziness coming to the fore.

This did not go unnoticed.

Giro watched carefully as Aile started to droop. He gave Vent a quick nod, and his son left quietly to return to his duties. Giro couldn't help but feel pride watching him leave. Not only was he happy to have Vent taking up the torch with his business, he was proud of him for holding off on doing anything important. He was clearly being very considerate of his sister, and Giro was ecstatic that he'd raised Vent into such a caring young man. The boy was growing up well, rarely needing his guidance anymore.

One down. One to go.

Giro looked over at Aile as she slept and sighed. He and Vent had been taking turns watching her, though with Vent out running errands for Giro Express, most of the vigil had been done by himself. Giro didn't mind it too much. He supposed it gave him plenty of time to deal with paperwork from his business and Aile's adoption. And it also gave him time to… well… heal.

The blonde man didn't want to think about his own recovery. Healing from his mortal injuries would be a process, or so he'd been told, yet no matter how much he'd been warned it seemed like he could never have been ready for what those words truly meant. Giro felt so useless lately. Invalid. He stared balefully down at the cane that had become his everyday friend, his everyday curse, and despised it.

No. He didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to focus on how helpless he was. He'd rather focus on caring for Aile.

The girl worried him. Tugged at his heartstrings in exactly the same way Vent had those days after the amusement park attack. Back then, he'd buried his own trauma at the event to focus on helping Vent deal with his. Perhaps he was doing the same thing this time but with Aile instead. He wouldn't have minded dying for Vent. But he really didn't want to die at all, especially if it meant leaving Vent to fend for himself in a world that had suddenly turned vicious and full of betrayal. Serpent wanted to kill Vent. Kill him.

Don't think about it. He was fine. Or at least, he would be.

Giro knew Aile could take care of herself. She was an amazing fighter, and there's no way anyone could deny it. Even Model Z had noticed it and commented on it. Said biometal was lounging idly nearby. Just because Giro wasn't able to use a biometal anymore didn't mean he didn't enjoy his old friend's company. Vent had noticed this and left the red object behind on occasion so the two could chat, even if Model Z's version of "chatting" usually didn't involve more than a few words at a time. That didn't mean that Giro didn't greatly appreciate his son's gesture. Vent was growing up a thoughtful, compassionate man. But Vent was still growing. As was Aile. She was a fighter, she was spirited, but she was also oh so vulnerable no matter how hard she tried to hide it. He saw so much of Vent in her, so much of those early days where Vent trusted no one, acted overly independent, and worried Giro to no end.

Giro was tremendously concerned for Aile. He worried for her mental and physical health, and also worried about how fast he was falling for the little upstart. A month ago he'd have been happy to denounce the actions of the nefarious Imp of Cinq Ville. Now Giro would defend everything she did and then some, because clearly she had a lot of issues that no one had helped her with, personal limits she ignored, wounds on her psyche she hid by striking out at others. It wasn't her fault she acted like she did when she acted in constant, perceived self defense, was it? She'd grown physically but not mentally, he thought. Vent had been so… stubborn as a child. Distant. Aile was acting exactly like that yet worse. Would it be hard to correct such behaviours in an older child? She trusted no one.

No one but her father. A Maverick.

Small wonder Aile thought everyone was out to get her. If she thought of herself as a maverick, too, then everyone really was out to get her. The amount of fear and vitriol that the general populace held towards mavericks was justified, but severe. If she'd grown up thinking that fear was directed at her… that all that hate was hatred towards her specifically…!

She loved her father so, so much. And Giro hated him for it.

Whoever he was, he'd almost ruined her. She was clearly so heartfelt, so brave, and so fearful. Was he a cruel and evil maverick, or was he misunderstood? What drove him to train her to be so ruthless and defensive? What made a maverick, of all things, decide to adopt a young and traumatized girl? Whatever the reason was, the maverick had clearly trained her extremely well in combat. That was the only explanation Giro could think of for her near-prodigious abilities. Maybe he did have genuine concern for her, as he'd made sure she was physically safe. But what about mentally? Did the maverick actually care for her? Or was something else guiding his decisions?

Vent was a Mega Man. Aile was too. Giro's blood ran cold at the thought. Did the maverick know this? Was that the reason she was spared?

Giro was falling for Aile, hard. And thank the merciful gods, Vent was as well. Giro would have felt much more guilt at focusing so much of his attention on Aile if Vent himself wasn't also going along with it. They both worried so much for her; Vent and him had conversed about her and how she acted, and his son had nearly cried openly during the discussion. Vent was so happy that she was poor kid had no idea how to talk to her. Aile was so harsh! So funny! So selfish! So helpful yet hurtful!

She'd cried at the thought of her father being targeted. She'd raged about her brother being hurt. Her words from before reared up viciously in Giro's mind, "YOU tell ME who was the better dad. The one who taught his kid, ugh, chivalry, and laws, and other silly things? Or the one who taught his daughter how not to get killed!"

Ruthless. Ruthless, but true.

Giro hated it.

Aile was incredibly loving, yet horribly misguided and brutal. Her concerns for her brother had so easily been warped into an attack on someone else. Well, Giro thought to himself, he was going to fix that. The blonde man had promised not to kill her father. He'd said nothing about stringing the man up by his nethers and beating some much-needed sense into him, if for no other reason than to get some good use out of his new cane. Whoever he was, Giro owed him a severe walloping. Justice needed to be dealt. And then Giro would spirit Aile away from him and show her how to care for others without pushing them away. He'd show her what a truly loving father could do. Giro didn't doubt for a moment that this mysterious maverick didn't love Aile nearly as much as Aile loved him. He was letting her run around on her own! Did he even care that she was putting herself into such dangerous situations? If it wasn't for Vent being a Mega Man and himself being injured, Giro would never have entertained the thought of letting Vent wander around alone and risk his life like Aile had been doing up until now.

Her 'daddy' didn't deserve her.

Vent called Giro 'dad' now. Giro's heart swelled with happiness and love. He was overjoyed at the title, and intended to show both Vent and Aile that he was deserving of it. What had she called him earlier? Not-pops? One of these days, he was going to get rid of that "not" portion. Pops. It matched Aile's irreverence and, in his opinion, had a pleasant ring to it…

The blonde man let himself be distracted by paperwork and daydreams of fatherhood. He filled out signatures and read through clauses with dutiful focus, then sneered at a horrendously obvious typo in a legal document from Legion regarding Aile's guardianship. Really, how had the lawyers missed that? Model Z placed himself nearby. The biometal was all too happy to act the paperweight and take a leisurely nap as Giro whittled away at legalities. Muguet's previous outrage at Aile's files was well deserved; the whole thing was an absolute fiasco. It didn't help that the cogs of government moved ridiculously slowly; He was still waiting for a set of forms regarding her education. It was a complete mess, no doubt about it, but at least he wasn't alone when facing such daunting piles of documents. He enjoyed Model Z's companionable silence and occasional commentary immensely as the daylight hours slipped away from him. For all his complaints about legislative frivolities and personal injuries, Giro was glad to be alive.

The blonde man was halfway through a particularly annoying bushel of paperwork when Vent reappeared. He blinked, surprised that his son had returned so soon, "You're back early?

Vent chuckled softy, "It's about five in the evening, dad. I'm not early at all."

Giro did a mild double-take and turned to look at a clock. "Huh. It really is."

Vent shook his head and leaned against a wall nearby. The pair of them spared a moment to smile fondly at each other before Vent asked, "How's Aile, by the way? She good?"

Giro smiled, "She's slept soundly all day." He then looked over at Aile to confirm his own claims, but the disturbance appeared to have roused her. Aile grumbled wordlessly and shuffled around, her nose scrunching up as she came into awareness. Apparently she was extremely dissatisfied with being woken up as she blinked at them both, groaned in disgust, and shoved her face into her pillow. She might have gone straight back to sleep if not for her brother shoving some dinner near her nose. "Hey sis. Hungry?"

Aile stared balefully at the offering. Her dour expression disappeared quickly as the smell of fries, gravy, and cheese quickly perked her up. "Bribery accepted! I'm starving!"

Giro chuckled at her enthusiasm, and both him and Vent shared a relieved glance at Aile's appetite. The brunette girl was already sat up and digging into her poutine before Vent had finished distributing the rest of the take-out Giro had asked him to pick up on his way back. Asking questions about Aile's favourite food, while seemingly innocuous, had turned out to be a shockingly helpful idea. Her eating habits were poor even on good days, if Vent's observations were correct. Half the time she'd skipped breakfast without a second thought, or didn't ask about food at all until Vent shoved it at her. It's as if she wasn't used to eating regularly at all.

Aile was so very, very thin. Yet another reason for Giro to hate her father.

Rather than linger on such unpleasant thoughts, Giro turned to Vent with a wry, knowing smirk, "So, Vent. How were deliveries today?"

Vent immediately wailed in mock agony, rolling his eyes at the inanity of customers, "God, that guy with the love letters was at it again! I've lost track of how many times I've been back and forth between the two!"

"Wait, is this that same loser from yesterday?!" Aile cut in curiously.

"Yes."

"Holy shit Vent-"

"-Language, Aile!"

"-I told you to burn that ass-er, that jerk's letters! Rip 'em up and toss 'em in his face!"

"Now Aile, we can't spurn a paying customer like that," Giro pointed out. "Vent and I have a business to maintain."

"That poor girl," Aile ignored Giro as she continued, "Nonstop letters from some lovesick creep that won't respect her boundaries. Vent, you should totally just deliver his letters to some thug or something. I'd pay to see the look on his face when the pretty little victim he wants to meet turns out to be a biker dude or maverick."

"Aww, Aile, that's so mean! He's in love, be nice."

"I'll think about it," she giggled. She wasn't going to think about it.

Vent smiled, "It looks like you're doing a lot better today. Being sick sucks, huh."

"Uuuuuugh!" Aile agreed, more than a little fed up of being ill. "Yeah, this stinks. I should be up by tomorrow though."

"No you will not," Giro said sternly, "you are going to need at least another day or two of rest."

"I'll be fine," she reassured, "really. If I can sit up and talk today, then I'll be able to stand up no problem tomorrow. And if I can stand up, I can go on a mission!" She swung her legs to the side of the bed as if to demonstrate, got to her feet with a wobble, and posed proudly.

"That is not how being sick works. If you force yourself to work too early into your recovery, you'll just set yourself back even more." Giro spoke. Muguet had been very stern in telling him the exact same thing about his wounds. If he had to rest up, then so did she.

"I'm sure I'll be fine. I basically never get sick, so I'll bounce right back!" Aile boasted. Vent and Giro gave each other a disbelieving look.

"Oh really? You never get sick?"

"Well… Maybe not never… I remember a while back," Aile admitted haltingly as she sat back down, "there was one time where I got pretty ill. I don't know if I did something stupid when I was a kid or what, like ate something rotten, but I got it really bad. Daddy panicked. I don't think I ever saw him so worried before." Well. Excluding that time Pandora and Prometheus had tried to kidnap her, but she wasn't going to tell anyone that. "It was kinda funny. He got so worked up! He broke into a pharmacy in the middle of the night, took a whole bunch of children's medicine, then didn't use any of it because he read all the warning labels when he got back and they were all scary. He said he was gonna attack the city and kidnap an ambulance person if he had to. But I got better before it came to that."

"Attack the city?!" Vent gawked, "Why would your dad do that!?"

"It's because he's a... Well. I don't want to say anything if you want to keep it a secret Aile, okay?" Giro asked, his voice hushed. Giro may not have liked her dad, but he respected Aile's decision to keep the truth about him hidden… for now. Earning trust was going to be an uphill battle, but he had to start somewhere.

Aile looked away, too afraid to see if Vent was judging her. But he deserved to know at least a little about her father. "Yeah, uh, Daddy… my dad… he's a maverick," She admitted quietly. She only just remembered that she'd confessed this fact to Giro not long ago, and it horrified her. She must have been too sick to think better of it. But Giro hadn't said anything to anyone as far as she knew. He'd actually been kind of decent about it, and let her keep her secret.

Vent looked rather upset, but Giro placed his hand on Vent's arm and they exchanged a glance. Clearly they would talk about it later. But for now, Vent sighed and accepted the fact without comment, "So, uh… a maverick? Anyone I'd know?" He tried to joke lightly.

Aile chuckled, "Nah. You wouldn't."

"You sure? I'm pretty good at busting mavericks. I've beaten up a whole bunch of them. Maybe I did meet him!"

"Hah! No! Oh, trust me," Aile was laughing heartily now, "maybe you can take on normal mavericks, but Daddy would kick your butt so hard!"

"Oh he would now, would he? I don't know about that, Aile. I'm a pretty hard butt to kick," Vent taunted. The three of them laughed their guts out, perhaps more in relief than actual humour. Still, Aile was pretty heartened by it all. It was fine if they knew that Daddy was a maverick. It was fine. She'd be genuinely shocked if they hadn't figured it out already anyways. As long as she didn't tell them anything more than that, maybe they'd all be okay with it.

It was all gonna be fine, Aile told herself repeatedly. Maybe if she kept saying it, she could convince herself it was true.