Metempsychotic

The Last Promise

Two months later...

It was early- way too early for Vent's liking. Yet, for just this once, he didn't particularly mind it either. For the first time in two months, Vent was able to breathe freely. In just a short amount of time, almost every citizen on the country had come together to help rebuild the highway and portions of Areas G, S, and T; all of which were residential areas effected by the fall of Slither Inc. After recovering and waking up from his scrape with Serpent, Vent had immediately went to help Sho at Giro Express.

Keeping busy was what distracted Vent from Aile's recovery status which, for quite awhile, looked dismal.

Vent wasn't even there when Aile woke up. Work at the warehouse went on for longer than Sho had expected, so Vent had stayed as late as the Reploid needed him. At the end of his shift, Vent would have gone to his room and slept, but Giro Express no longer felt like a home to him so he took a transerver back to Guardian HQ. When he stepped off the transerver, he almost didn't realize that Rush had been waiting for him. It took the bark of the mutt to gain Vent's attention.

"Hey boy." Vent said to Rush, petting the Reploid dog. "Anything fun happen while I was gone?"

To this, Rush gave Vent a rather ecstatic bark before giving the boy many licks to the face. Affording a small laugh, Vent pushed the mutt off which then lead to Rush heading toward the door, taking a look at Vent happily in indication.

"You want me to follow you?" the boy then asked.

Rush gave another happy bark in reply.

"Alright," Vent relented, "I'm following."

Making good on his promise, Vent followed Rush through Guardian base. It didn't quite click to Vent on where they were going until he saw the sign of Aile's room in the infirmary. Rush waited patiently for Vent at the base of the door. He looked on at the boy as if the mutt knew something Vent didn't. Vent looked down at Rush before looking at the door- carefully, slowly, he opened it to find something that nearly made him faint.

"Aile!"

There in the middle of the room, using Muguet to stable herself, was Aile. Hearing her brother's voice, Aile looked up to face Vent. Her skin was paler than usual, her face was sunk in as if she was death itself, and she just looked absolutely weary; but Vent didn't care- Aile was alive and awake and certainly unprepared as Vent rushed toward her.

"Easy! Easy! Easy! Easy!!" Muguet demanded in rising pitch as Vent pulled Aile in for a rather tight hug. But Vent ignored the nurse.

"You're alive!" the boy repeated in relief and astonishment. "You're alive! You're alive!"

Despite him absolutely crushing her, Aile let Vent have this moment as she carefully tried to place her chin on his shoulder. Hugs were nice, she'd have to do this more often now.

. . .

Muguet permitted Aile to leave Guardian HQ the next day- but she could not go too far. Aile didn't care where she went as long as it was out of HQ. Thankfully, Vent knew a small takeout place near the highway and from there they just relaxed. The highway had been cleared since the cleanup of Slither Inc was underway, so there was nothing stopping the twins (and Rush, who had tagged along) from sitting at the edge of the highway bridge and just relaxing.

"So..." Aile then lulled; sitting so she was just barely at the edge of the road, one foot propped on the edge and the other casually dangling below, "What happened while I was out?"

To this, Vent uncomfortably shifted a little. Unlike Aile, Vent was sitting a good inch away from the highway's edge and was keeping his legs crossed.