Metempsychotic

They Have My Sister!

Vent could just barely remember that last time he had gotten sick. He was about four at the time, and the virus he received was a widespread one- even Juno got it. In fact, all of the human staff at Giro Express got the virus. Vent remembered bunking in Juno's room while the two got better, they both had really high fevers, but Juno kept squirming away from him because she swore that his feet were colder than a dead man's body.

Despite Giro Express being cut more than half of staff from leave, Girouette still came every hour on the dot to check on them. Vent remembered that his fever started to break far before Juno's did, and he was able to get back to working not long after that. Juno had to still be in bed far after he was allowed to get up, and maybe from a forged memory Vent overheard Muguet tell Giro that Juno's condition was getting worse. That was when Giro came to see Juno every ten minutes; it had gotten so bad that his boss even refused deliveries. The word 'death' was never said around him, but its reminder lingered throughout the transport service like an airborne virus. Everything, it seemed, was wrong then.

It was that night Vent learned what the word 'worry' meant. Of course, that didn't mean he'd never heard the word before; the adults were always telling themselves to 'not worry' about things Vent himself didn't quite understand. He took the phrase to mean the same as 'break a leg' or 'good luck,' just little bits of encouragement adults gave each other because they needed it. Turned out, it had a much broader meaning than just encouragement.

Waiting six hours for Girouette to properly reboot made the boy worry. It made him worry that his boss wouldn't completely recuperate (he wasn't in the right mind beforehand, and Prairie didn't specifically say that it was part of the transference), and then he worried that when Giro did get better, he was going to punish Vent for what he had said. The boy flinched every time he remembered Giro's reaction to a moment of smart-assery that Vent was bound and determined that he could not control. The look on his boss's face could have stopped traffic in Cinq Ville from up in the sky, it would have made a ripe tomato look pale in comparison, it was nothing Vent had never seen before on his caretaker's face; what Vent didn't know was that Giro had only faced one of his demons that morning. The other was something that Girouette would never forgive himself for, ever.

"Are you alright?" Vent asked his boss after exactly six hours were over. Girouette sat up on the medical cot and gave his charge a warm smile.

"Yes, I think so. Thank you Vent."

"Hey... Giro..." Vent then started to say, sheepishly looking down at the floor, "About earlier..."

"Don't worry about it Vent." Girouette assured, even placing a calm hand on Vent's shoulder. "I... actually kinda deserved it."

"No you didn't Boss!" argued Vent, getting out of Giro's grip. "I stepped out of line and-"

"Vent, if anyone seriously needs to apologize today, it's me." Girouette asserted. His tone was growing darker. "I've lied too much to you in the past. I need to... I need to tell you something."

"W-what?"

Giro took a long exhale before starting to say something, but was cut off by emergency alarms.

"Mavericks detected in Area D!" an announcer proclaimed through the intercom system, "Mission objectives will be relayed on arrival. Move out and await further orders. I repeat! Mavericks detected in Area D! Mission objectives will by relayed on arrival. Move out and await further orders."

Girouette frowned. "Area D..." he thought to himself. "That's next to the Slither Inc office. Come on, Vent, we're going to see if the commander needs help."