Stargazer - Tribulation

Chapter Three - Irritation

Darryl and Mayumi stay inside Darryl's room tonight. Mayumi stands with her back pressed against the wall. "Tomorrow is the big day," she states. "Are you excited?"

"I am, yeah. It's so silly being nervous about meeting your family, you know, but at the same time, I just don't know."

"No, it's not," she glances at him. "It's understandable after all the time. But you know what? You're not alone," she grins at him.

"Thank you. You always know how to cheer me up," says Darryl and gently kisses Mayumi's lips.

"By the way," she adds after he lets go. "There is something I need to tell you."

"What is it?"

She takes a minute to answer—her mind just can't seize to lie at him. She needs to tell Darryl the truth, the truth about his parents. But what if he knows about it? Will he still want to meet them? She doesn't want to hurt him, but she also doesn't want to live longer with this stone in her heart.

"No," she shakes her head. "It's nothing."

"Alright, but if you do want to tell me, I am all up for it."

"Okay," she exhales with a smile. "Thank you."

"By the way," says Darryl turning around with the new uniform at the mirror. "This kind of looks cool, though," his hand rolls over the front of his clothes.

She smiles. "Yes, I mean," she walks up to the mirror, looking at Darryl inside it. "Everyone has their own symbol now."

Name and Horizon's head model stitched at the left side, with the name underneath the silhouette's outlines. Their color, more grey than green, overall. Shoulder pads in their machine's corresponding color, depending on the model creation, either two lines for the H-02, three for the H-03, four for the H-04, five for the H-05, and for the H-06 six. Logan has seven.

One zip line in between the top. Their trousers perfectly match the black outlines of the grey uniform. Their boots, reaching almost to their knees, looking like metal with silver soles. At the right side of the chest, the Stargazer symbol shines bright in gold.

"But it is kind of hard to get out of it, though," he chuckles.

"Yeah, but this one looks way better than the old one. I mean, we technically are a team, and yet."

"I guess. I mean I don't mind. As long as I can—"he unzips, revealing the rabbit with sunglasses and a thumbs up on his shirt. He looks at Mayumi. His eyebrows bounce up and down.

"You never change," she shakes her head.

Logan steps inside Jason's office. He doesn't know what to do with himself, so he walks around and pretty much just stands, watches, or even disturbs people at some point by just existing. Riley got upset with his presence, so she sends him away to go to someone else as she can't be bothered with someone like him. She never did that. Even Doug send him out as he accidentally got some coffee on his desk. It wasn't on purpose, of course.

He just wanted to help, but no one wants his help.

"Just wanted to see how you were doing today," he says, standing at the wall.

"You don't need to check on me every day. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, I just felt like visiting you."

Jason chuckles. "I think you're rather annoying others, don't you?"

"I am not," he huffs. "I am, you know, a very present man who just—"

"I get it. What do you want?" he smiles at him.

"I was thinking of Henry," Logan seats himself. "Will he be able to cope with the system? Should we even continue to try?"