Pilot and Angels

Chapter 27: Re-Union

"Hah..."

A weary sigh escaped a lithe figure. It was Arona, who was just... standing there in the hangar. Droz and Davis said that they went on a short errand, leaving her to be accompanied by the three Marvins who were working tirelessly around her.

She gazed upward, sadness and pain written on her face like a book. As she did, tears slowly started to well up in her eyes, though she quickly wiped them off.

Above her, Falcon's wreckage was suspended by numerous metal wirings.

Even if she tried to stop the tears, they just kept flooding out like a broken dam. The little AI let out a small sob, remembering all the moments with him. Of her riding on top of his chassis. Of him keeping her safe in his arms. Of them working together to help the Pilots.

Droz and Davis told her that he wasn't completely gone. That as long as his core is intact, he will come back someday. But she couldn't help but miss him. It didn't help that her mind was weighed down by someone dear for the past month.

All the uncertainty and unknown variables kept her up at night. Waiting, but never knowing if he would ever wake up. She told herself that he would wake up, but the littlest doubts always plague everyone's mind. He promised her that he would definitely come back, so she had to stay strong.

The sound of a door opening quickly snapped her out of her conundrum. She swiftly wiped her eyes and stopped sobbing. She tried her best to smile, a facade that she knew would break sooner or later. She turned around, fully expecting to greet the duo.

She didn't expect that her facade would break then and there.

"Hey, they got a lot of selection there. I didn't know what to pick, so I got you a castella cake."

The figure raised his arm, a simple white box in his hand. He locked his eyes with hers, a smile upon his face causing tears to flow again down her cheeks without her noticing. Her halo was rapidly moving like a wave, following her heart's turmoil.

She thought about meeting him again, of how she would react, of what she would say, but all of them flew out of the window the moment she saw him. She stood there motionless as their world seemed to come to a screeching halt. She wanted to say something, but the words seemed to stop in her throat. This time, she couldn't stop the tears that flowed.

She wordlessly ran toward him at full speed and tackled him. She didn't care, she wanted to make sure he was real as fast as possible. A low grunt escaped him as her small frame crashed onto his, his figure already on his knees, fully expecting the turn of events. His expression softened as he placed his gift on a nearby table before reciprocating her sudden hug.

"T-This is you, r-right, S-Sensei?" She asked amidst her sobbing. She snaked her arms around his neck tighter, worried that he would escape to somewhere out of her reach again. At long last, she can finally feel the warmth she missed.

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