"There. Perfect." Sunny says, happily as she puts the finishing touches on Storm's outfit for the wedding. Storm inspects herself in the mirror, trying to get used to seeing herself in a dress. She still thinks she looks incredibly ridiculous, even with her new civilian enhancements, but doesn't say anything about it.
It's a simple, flowing, light blue dress that cuts off just below her knees, with deep blue accents around the collar, waist, and hem. Her shoes are grey 'vans' because she refused to wear heels, she has the locket that Naomi gave her, and after a lot of persistent begging from Sunny, her hair is curled and has one of the younger girl's blue flowers woven into it.
Storm smiles and kneels so that she's at eye level with the smaller girl who has become like a little sister to her.
"Thank you, Sunny. I have no idea how to do this kind of thing on my own." she says, earning a giggle from her "You're welcome. We girls have to look our best." Sunny tells her. They wait outside the Nomad as Colonel Campbell leads Meryl down the "aisle" and to Akiba's side.
During the reception, Otacon comes up to Storm as she and the others are poking fun at Akiba "Hey, Storm. Can I talk to you for a second?" he asks, recieving a nod in response. They go to a quieter area "What is it?" she asks.
"Naomi...she asked me to give you this. I don't know what's on it, she said that it's for your eyes only." he tells her, handing her a flash drive. She looks at it curiously and then to him, and notices that he looks like he's about to cry but he's holding it in.
"Otacon....Hal," she starts, putting emphasis on his real name "Things can only get better now. No matter how dark our histories are, they cannot define who we are. Only we have the ability to do that." she says. He blinks the tears back, pushes up his glasses, and smiles "You're right, Storm. It's time for me to move on." he says.
Sunny then skips up to them "Can I give him the MK III?" she asks Otacon "What?" he asks, confused. She then points to a boy she just met "We don't understand each other's language, but we're having fun. He's my first outside friend." she says. Otacon and Storm turn to look at the foreign boy who's happily controlling the little robot.
"Sure. Uh, Sunny. It's ok if you want to live outside now." Otacon tells her. The younger girl smiles and crouches down, hugging her knees to her chest as she stares at the sunset "I like it outside. The sun is so pretty." she says "When is Snake coming back?" suddenly Otacon's smile disappears.
"Snake...is sick. So he went on a trip to help him feel better." he chokes out "Are we going with him?" Sunny asks "No. He needs to be alone." he says with his back to the girls so they won't see him struggling with his tears again. "I wonder if we'll ever see him again?" "Snake....had a hard life. He needs some time to rest."
Storm's smile disappears too because she knows what he really means just by the way he said it. "Are you crying?" Storm asks "N-no. I'm not crying." he stutters, turning to face them again with his glasses askew. Sunny giggles at this, causing them to smile again as she makes faces at Otacon and pretends to push an invisible pair of glasses up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She eventually wanders over to Drebin's Stryker, only to find him downing another bottle of champagne. "Storm! Nice to see you're still alive!" He blares. "You're drunk." She states plainly "Well, yes. Yes I am, thank you for noticing. It is a special occasion after all. And there are no more nanos to break down the alcohol."
Little Gray scampers up to her, offering a can of beer. She looks at it before handing it back to the monkey. "So! D'ya like the sword?" He asks with no small amount of pride in his slurred voice.
