ORGÁNOSI I: Broken Mask

ANTECEDENT: CHAPTER 35

ANTECEDENT: CHAPTER 35

MIDNIGHT stayed with Chaos the whole time after Chaos woke to make sure that Chaos would have someone with him when he needs something. Unlike him, who already had an Ultor and a tracker to look after him, Chaos did not have someone to take care of him.

Also, he had learned from old man Dominick and Silvanus that when recovering; you need someone with you to recover fast. This had been proven and tested when he was recovering in the laboratory after his brain treatment.

Thus, he applied that to Chaos and stayed with him.

If Dominick and Silvanus knew this, they would clap and be proud that the emotionless Midnight from before had learned something warmhearted.

"No need to stay with me. I'm fine." Chaos told Midnight, who was peeling an orange for him with a knife. "Go do your thing."

"I am doing my thing." Midnight answered and showed Chaos the part of the orange he had skillfully peeled while wearing a disposable glove. "See? My peeling skills have leveled up."

Chaos sighed. "Seriously, I'm fine."

"I know." Midnight glanced at Chaos. "But you are still recovering, and you do not have anyone with you, so bear with me for a few days."

"I don't need anyone." Chaos said firmly. "I'm fine on my own."

Midnight finished peeling the orange and fed Chaos one carpel of orange. "I used to say that, too, because I grow up doing everything alone. I fought by myself and licked my own wounds. No one offered help, and I always thought it was normal because all I ever met was greedy and selfish people.

"Until," Midnight's gaze became vacant, as if remembering something happened in a distant past, "someone reached out their hands to me. The owner of that hand taught me a lot of things. He showed me altruistic kindness, infinite understanding, genuine care, and a lot more than I deserved." His attention returned to Chaos and fed him another carpel of orange. "What I'm saying is accepting someone's hand or companionship isn't all that bad. Why don't you give it a try?"

This time, Midnight did not feed Chaos a carpel of orange, but offered a slice to him, patiently waiting for Chaos to accept it.

"And if I regretted it?" Chaos asked Midnight while looking at the slice of orange Midnight was offering.

Midnight shrugged. "At least you learned something."

"Learned what? Pain and disappointment?"

Midnight corrected Chaos. "Loss and acceptance."

Chaos stared at Midnight for a long while before Chaos raised his hand to accept the slice of orange Midnight offered.

It was just a simple gesture, but to the two people; it had a symbolic meaning to it.

Midnight sat on the chair next to Chaos' bed in the infirmary and reached for the apple to eat. "The doctor said it'll take you a few weeks to recover. What happened to you in that basement?"

Chaos ate the orange he accepted and looked at Midnight with a frown. "Did it ever cross your mind that maybe I don't want to talk about it?"

Midnight shrugged. "Then don't. I won't force you. Let's talk about something else then."

"Like what?"

Midnight looked at Chaos, and Chaos stared back at Midnight. Two quiet people, usually comfortable with silence, suddenly found themselves searching for conversation.

Eventually, they shrugged and enjoyed the silence.

Midnight only left Chaos' bedside when Atticus came looking for him, saying a cleaning crew supervisor was looking for him.