A
Arbitrated
188604, Osman City, A hospital. Two days after the Kuvexian Raid
Alex and Araxie had been transferred to a hospital in Osman City following the return of the Excalibur to planet 188604, and since the hospital was small, and there were already many other injured personnel from the raid, they were stuck in a hospital room together. While Araxie's exposure to vacuum had been relatively easy for the doctors to treat, simply grafting healthy skin and nerves onto the freezer burned wings, Alex's bleeding proved more problematic.
The doctors had needed to both drain the blood from his head, which had accumulated after his blood vessels ruptured following deactivation of the power balancer in his mecha, as well as help the vessels heal. The resulting procedure had left Alex in a deep healing sleep for two days.
Having only fainted from shock and a notable but nonthreatening amount of blood loss, as well as a particularly bad case of the bends, Serai groaned in pain as she woke and pulled herself into a sitting position slowly, taking a few minutes to figure out her surroundings. "Alex," she called out softly, "where are you? Alex?" Seeing the unconscious form beside her, the Elysian sighed quietly to herself, sliding her feet onto the floor silently. "Well... Glad you're alive, even though you can't hear me... Maybe next time don't, uh, don't do whatever did... that." Shakily standing up, primarily using her hospital cot for support, Arx paused for a minute or two to breathe easy, hunched slightly backwards as she was.
"Damn if I was taken by surprise though, ow... I guess we'll need to look at the suits again, heh." Gazing at her unconscious companion's visage sadly, tiredly, Birdy shifted herself about to lean upon his bed, bringing her lips to his ear. "Y'know, Alex... You don't need to push yourself all the time like that. That was really dangerous..." The angel followed her scolding with a kiss upon Tasuki's lips, and a cautious ruffle of his hair.
Alex's brow was cool, and while Araxie was looking at him a nurse peeked into the room. Seeing Araxie was busy she decided to let the situation play out, and walked away.
"Hm. No, you didn't wake up. Yeah, I guess it makes sense, we're not in some fairy tale... Heh. Hmm..." Sitting herself on the foot of Alex's bed, Araxie glanced at her own. Covered in blue feathers, some of them spilling onto the ground, it was hard to figure out if there was an actual blanket in there or if some sort of best was constructed in the birb's sleep. "Hm. Made a mess myself so I guess I can't rattle on you about it." She thought for a few moments, "I have to say, Alex... I know you like to protect everyone the best you can. But... Sometimes you don't need to go full tilt... You can hurt people emotionally, just not physically... Especially by accident. Just... Trust in us, I guess is what I'm trying to say. I'm at least here for you. Uso is here for you... Okay maybe not actually here, but you know what I mean. You don't need to charge in to protect those around you. We can protect you too, okay?" She sighed again, looking at the clock on the wall.
Alex's eyes flickered a little, though they remained closed. He was slowly beginning to regain consiousness, and soon he would be able to make out speech.
Birdy sighed again, "Well, I guess there's not much I can talk to a nearly dead guy about, so... I guess I'll leave you be, I guess." Standing up slowly again, the significantly defeathered birb made her way back over to their assigned bed, sitting upon it again.
Alex managed to croak out a few words.
"Muuughh... My head...."
"Y'know, I think you should just take it easy actually... We have plenty of time, Alex." Serai simply remained seated on her own bed despite wanting to rush over to Alex.
Alex pushed himself up into a reclined seated position with some effort. "Time for... what?"
"Time for, well... resting. We're not about to run off somewhere to fight kuvexians again already, so just relax a little. Mkay?" Araxie's face seemed to materialize above Alex's, hovering a few decimeters away. "After all, I doubt you could fly in this condition let alone fight..."
"Yeah... Probably not." Alex said, wincing. "You look like you're fine though, why are you still here?"
"Just woke up. I'm surprised you're conscious actually, considering you went through a hell of a lot more than I did."
"Remember the camping trip? When you asked about my metabolism?" Alex said, "I think I heal faster as a side effect."
"...Huh. Even accounting for that, you were..." She shuddered, surprisingly silently. "...Yeah it looked a bit nastier than just some bruises. Let's put it at that."
"I think we have the doctors here to thank for a large part of my recovery. Are you okay? Your wings look like something happened to them."
Arx coughed deliberately. "Uh, yeah... I'll be fine." Now that his eyes had mostly adjusted, Alex could catch a glimpse of Araxie's feathery limbs-or what was left of them. Most of the plumage had fallen off, leaving the occasional primary or secondary attatched to a greyish field of skin. "I think it was a side effect of my uh, space-walk. Considering well... Yeah. I'll be fine, maybe a little cold for the next couple of weeks or something..."
Alex sat himself up properly, wincing as his head pounded. "The last thing I remember before I woke up here was landing in the hangar. I... You were there, and you passed out. Was it really that bad?"
"I... I don't want to talk about that. It wasn't the spacewalk that took me down, I think. And, Alex..." Shifting herself to be still in front of him, the nearly featherless birb's silvery eyes twinkled sadly. "I don't want you to get killed just to keep other people from getting hurt. We need to work together, not alone... We're here for you, for that..."
"But what else am I good for? All I know is flying and getting hurt so that others don't have to." Alex said, looking down. "I don't know much else. Not enough to be any good to anyone."
"Alex... Alex. I don't mean you can't be a soldier. What I mean, is you shouldn't be a one-man army. That's why we're here for you, so you don't have to go in to every fight like it's the last stand, where you're all on your own against the odds. I don't want you to fight for your sky guard... I want you to fight with your sky guard. If we work together, we don't have problems like what happened back there." Araxie kissed Alex's forehead lightly.
"I guess. But once the fighting is done, then what?"
She shrugged. "Start a family? Learn more about business? Live off of the spoils of war? Prepare for the next fight? I guess it's up to you at that point."
"I mean, I guess any of those would be nice so long as I was doing them with people I cared about. You know I don't just fight for the sky guard, I fight for people like you and Uso, people who I care about."
"Well... Yes. But some of those people can hold their own. That's why you brought me into this, right? You wanted to see if I could hold my own."
"Yeah but... I still wanted to protect you. I don't know what I'd do if you got killed."
"I mean... I guess technically wait a couple of hours." Araxie chuckled nervously at her pitiful joke. "But seriously, Alex. You don't think we worry about you, too? I do. And if you're bringing me along... I want you to know that that means we're together. Not just two individuals, but actually working together..." She took a few deep breaths, slowing her gradually-increasing heart.
"I didn't realize you cared like that. I thought that after the camping trip when I, um... told you how I felt, that you thought of me differently, not how I thought about you." Alex cringed internally. Damn his inability to articulate these feelings.
"I don't really know what to think, right now... But I don't want to lose you because you're trying to protect me all by yourself." The angel's calm face tilted a little, and she poked his forehead very lightly. "I took care of myself just fine before I got here. I want you to remember that..."
"I guess, but all of this is new to me. I don't know how to deal with these feelings."
"Hm. Uso seems to know her way around emotions better than either of us. Maybe you should ask her, I guess... And she is your mother, or at least tries to be." A softer, lighter chuckle escaped the birb as she recalled Alex's birthday.
"I guess she is."
"Anyways, backtracking a bit... Okay. So, let's say we won the war against the Kuvexian guys. What do you think we should do? I mean... We can do a lot of things, but... What would you prefer to do first I guess?"
"I don't really know either. I suppose protect the planet."
"Alex, there's basically nothing to protect it from. Maybe the occasional asshole who thinks they're cool enough to take us on but... And besides, we have other people in the Sky Guard to help with that. But... You talked about all you know being fighting. Maybe you should try to learn more? Something that isn't about, well... Fighting?"
"Like what?" Alex asked.
"For one, you could learn how to fix things. A technician I think the technical term is? But yeah. Or maybe something simple like a commercial pilot, because that fits in to what you know already pretty easily. Something that isn't so... Soldier-y."
"Hmmm... I'll have to give that some thought. Maybe I could help out with the development stuff you work on?"
"Possibly, yeah..." Serai shrugged again.
"So uhh... What do I do now?"
"Well right now... Go sleep or something, I guess. I can hear it in your voice that you're still hurting a lot... Come to think of it I think we're back on six-oh-four. It feels too light in here to be the inside of a ship."
"Huh... I think that sleep is a-" Alex yawned before continuing. "Good... idea..." He finished the sentence before he began to drift off to sleep, his eyelids heavy and beginning to fall closed.
"Heh..." The birb chuckled to herself quietly. "Seems you were more tired than I thought..." Gently laying Tasuki back onto his pillow, Araxie re-made his blanket and stood up slowly, muttering to herself, "Hm... Well, good night, sweet prince. Now, where can I get something to eat..."
Alex and Araxie had been transferred to a hospital in Osman City following the return of the Excalibur to planet 188604, and since the hospital was small, and there were already many other injured personnel from the raid, they were stuck in a hospital room together. While Araxie's exposure to vacuum had been relatively easy for the doctors to treat, simply grafting healthy skin and nerves onto the freezer burned wings, Alex's bleeding proved more problematic.
The doctors had needed to both drain the blood from his head, which had accumulated after his blood vessels ruptured following deactivation of the power balancer in his mecha, as well as help the vessels heal. The resulting procedure had left Alex in a deep healing sleep for two days.
Having only fainted from shock and a notable but nonthreatening amount of blood loss, as well as a particularly bad case of the bends, Serai groaned in pain as she woke and pulled herself into a sitting position slowly, taking a few minutes to figure out her surroundings. "Alex," she called out softly, "where are you? Alex?" Seeing the unconscious form beside her, the Elysian sighed quietly to herself, sliding her feet onto the floor silently. "Well... Glad you're alive, even though you can't hear me... Maybe next time don't, uh, don't do whatever did... that." Shakily standing up, primarily using her hospital cot for support, Arx paused for a minute or two to breathe easy, hunched slightly backwards as she was.
"Damn if I was taken by surprise though, ow... I guess we'll need to look at the suits again, heh." Gazing at her unconscious companion's visage sadly, tiredly, Birdy shifted herself about to lean upon his bed, bringing her lips to his ear. "Y'know, Alex... You don't need to push yourself all the time like that. That was really dangerous..." The angel followed her scolding with a kiss upon Tasuki's lips, and a cautious ruffle of his hair.
Alex's brow was cool, and while Araxie was looking at him a nurse peeked into the room. Seeing Araxie was busy she decided to let the situation play out, and walked away.
"Hm. No, you didn't wake up. Yeah, I guess it makes sense, we're not in some fairy tale... Heh. Hmm..." Sitting herself on the foot of Alex's bed, Araxie glanced at her own. Covered in blue feathers, some of them spilling onto the ground, it was hard to figure out if there was an actual blanket in there or if some sort of best was constructed in the birb's sleep. "Hm. Made a mess myself so I guess I can't rattle on you about it." She thought for a few moments, "I have to say, Alex... I know you like to protect everyone the best you can. But... Sometimes you don't need to go full tilt... You can hurt people emotionally, just not physically... Especially by accident. Just... Trust in us, I guess is what I'm trying to say. I'm at least here for you. Uso is here for you... Okay maybe not actually here, but you know what I mean. You don't need to charge in to protect those around you. We can protect you too, okay?" She sighed again, looking at the clock on the wall.
Alex's eyes flickered a little, though they remained closed. He was slowly beginning to regain consiousness, and soon he would be able to make out speech.
Birdy sighed again, "Well, I guess there's not much I can talk to a nearly dead guy about, so... I guess I'll leave you be, I guess." Standing up slowly again, the significantly defeathered birb made her way back over to their assigned bed, sitting upon it again.
Alex managed to croak out a few words.
"Muuughh... My head...."
"Y'know, I think you should just take it easy actually... We have plenty of time, Alex." Serai simply remained seated on her own bed despite wanting to rush over to Alex.
Alex pushed himself up into a reclined seated position with some effort. "Time for... what?"
"Time for, well... resting. We're not about to run off somewhere to fight kuvexians again already, so just relax a little. Mkay?" Araxie's face seemed to materialize above Alex's, hovering a few decimeters away. "After all, I doubt you could fly in this condition let alone fight..."
"Yeah... Probably not." Alex said, wincing. "You look like you're fine though, why are you still here?"
"Just woke up. I'm surprised you're conscious actually, considering you went through a hell of a lot more than I did."
"Remember the camping trip? When you asked about my metabolism?" Alex said, "I think I heal faster as a side effect."
"...Huh. Even accounting for that, you were..." She shuddered, surprisingly silently. "...Yeah it looked a bit nastier than just some bruises. Let's put it at that."
"I think we have the doctors here to thank for a large part of my recovery. Are you okay? Your wings look like something happened to them."
Arx coughed deliberately. "Uh, yeah... I'll be fine." Now that his eyes had mostly adjusted, Alex could catch a glimpse of Araxie's feathery limbs-or what was left of them. Most of the plumage had fallen off, leaving the occasional primary or secondary attatched to a greyish field of skin. "I think it was a side effect of my uh, space-walk. Considering well... Yeah. I'll be fine, maybe a little cold for the next couple of weeks or something..."
Alex sat himself up properly, wincing as his head pounded. "The last thing I remember before I woke up here was landing in the hangar. I... You were there, and you passed out. Was it really that bad?"
"I... I don't want to talk about that. It wasn't the spacewalk that took me down, I think. And, Alex..." Shifting herself to be still in front of him, the nearly featherless birb's silvery eyes twinkled sadly. "I don't want you to get killed just to keep other people from getting hurt. We need to work together, not alone... We're here for you, for that..."
"But what else am I good for? All I know is flying and getting hurt so that others don't have to." Alex said, looking down. "I don't know much else. Not enough to be any good to anyone."
"Alex... Alex. I don't mean you can't be a soldier. What I mean, is you shouldn't be a one-man army. That's why we're here for you, so you don't have to go in to every fight like it's the last stand, where you're all on your own against the odds. I don't want you to fight for your sky guard... I want you to fight with your sky guard. If we work together, we don't have problems like what happened back there." Araxie kissed Alex's forehead lightly.
"I guess. But once the fighting is done, then what?"
She shrugged. "Start a family? Learn more about business? Live off of the spoils of war? Prepare for the next fight? I guess it's up to you at that point."
"I mean, I guess any of those would be nice so long as I was doing them with people I cared about. You know I don't just fight for the sky guard, I fight for people like you and Uso, people who I care about."
"Well... Yes. But some of those people can hold their own. That's why you brought me into this, right? You wanted to see if I could hold my own."
"Yeah but... I still wanted to protect you. I don't know what I'd do if you got killed."
"I mean... I guess technically wait a couple of hours." Araxie chuckled nervously at her pitiful joke. "But seriously, Alex. You don't think we worry about you, too? I do. And if you're bringing me along... I want you to know that that means we're together. Not just two individuals, but actually working together..." She took a few deep breaths, slowing her gradually-increasing heart.
"I didn't realize you cared like that. I thought that after the camping trip when I, um... told you how I felt, that you thought of me differently, not how I thought about you." Alex cringed internally. Damn his inability to articulate these feelings.
"I don't really know what to think, right now... But I don't want to lose you because you're trying to protect me all by yourself." The angel's calm face tilted a little, and she poked his forehead very lightly. "I took care of myself just fine before I got here. I want you to remember that..."
"I guess, but all of this is new to me. I don't know how to deal with these feelings."
"Hm. Uso seems to know her way around emotions better than either of us. Maybe you should ask her, I guess... And she is your mother, or at least tries to be." A softer, lighter chuckle escaped the birb as she recalled Alex's birthday.
"I guess she is."
"Anyways, backtracking a bit... Okay. So, let's say we won the war against the Kuvexian guys. What do you think we should do? I mean... We can do a lot of things, but... What would you prefer to do first I guess?"
"I don't really know either. I suppose protect the planet."
"Alex, there's basically nothing to protect it from. Maybe the occasional asshole who thinks they're cool enough to take us on but... And besides, we have other people in the Sky Guard to help with that. But... You talked about all you know being fighting. Maybe you should try to learn more? Something that isn't about, well... Fighting?"
"Like what?" Alex asked.
"For one, you could learn how to fix things. A technician I think the technical term is? But yeah. Or maybe something simple like a commercial pilot, because that fits in to what you know already pretty easily. Something that isn't so... Soldier-y."
"Hmmm... I'll have to give that some thought. Maybe I could help out with the development stuff you work on?"
"Possibly, yeah..." Serai shrugged again.
"So uhh... What do I do now?"
"Well right now... Go sleep or something, I guess. I can hear it in your voice that you're still hurting a lot... Come to think of it I think we're back on six-oh-four. It feels too light in here to be the inside of a ship."
"Huh... I think that sleep is a-" Alex yawned before continuing. "Good... idea..." He finished the sentence before he began to drift off to sleep, his eyelids heavy and beginning to fall closed.
"Heh..." The birb chuckled to herself quietly. "Seems you were more tired than I thought..." Gently laying Tasuki back onto his pillow, Araxie re-made his blanket and stood up slowly, muttering to herself, "Hm... Well, good night, sweet prince. Now, where can I get something to eat..."
