NOVEL NEXT Chapter 6: Love Fool
Vorden helped his brother back to the lab, where the lab tech Meeka called for a healer. Frantically trying to get both guys back into their beds and hook them up to various monitors, she attempted to ask questions. Unfortunately the bruising was extremely painful, and she was pretty sure that Vorden may have fractured his jaw. The swelling had already been in full swing, and made most of what they said come out garbled and difficult to understand.
To Vorden's dismay after the healer, she also made calls to Shiro and Sil. Even though Shiro was only upstairs as he had been resting and Sil was coming from all the way across the estate, both men arrived at the same time. They entered the room one after the other, both wearing worried expressions.
"Where are they?" Shiro asked in a panicked tone. "What ha...." He stopped himself mid sentence, because as soon as his eyes fell on the two unrecognisable faces laying in the beds in front of him, he froze.
"What is it, what..." Sil right behind him finally stepping in to view did the same. After a brief pause, he began to laugh uncontrollably. The lab tech standing near was extremely confused.
Shiro's expression shifted from a look of worry, to something akin to a fatherly look of disapproval. "You FINALLY get your own bodies, and THIS is how you choose to spend your time?" He said in an elevated tone. "When you said you were eager to 'break in' the new ride Raten, I didn't think you meant to ACTUALLY break it!" Shiro let out a heavy sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose, as he shook his head.
Sil, still laughing in the background began to regain his composure. As he tried to catch his breath he looked from Raten to Vorden, and couldn't help but chuckle again. "So..." He began, "who won?" He tried to choke down another chuckle as Shiro shot him a stern look, he attempted to put on a more series expression.
Vorden and Raten glanced at each other, before Raten audibly scoffed while attempting to cross his injured arms. He glared out the window displeased. "It was a stalemate" Vorden finally responded. At this Vorden wore a slight smirk. Sil began laughing even harder this time, having to wipe tears away from his face.
The healer, a rather small and timid mouse of a girl named Isma, was shocked upon entering the room. One glance at the state of the boys and she nearly dropped her medical bag. She was instantly concerned that a war was going on outside or some kind of uprising had broken out, maybe a high level beast attack at least, but after some confused explanations from the lab tech, who only had the unintelligible explanation that the brothers were able to provide, but came with the insistence from Shiro that all was well, she relaxed a little and got right to work.
First she looked over both Blades, with both of her hands out flat, hovering just a few inches from their bodies, she started at one end and slowly walked along the bodies scanning over each part. After the brief assessment, noting that some of Raten's injuries were more troublesome she started with the biggest task first. Starting at Raten's broken nose needing to be reset, and his bruised ribs, the fractured eye socket, busted lip, torn tendon, and finally tended to the countless cuts, scrapes, bruises, lumps, sprains until finally she was satisfied with his state and moved on to Vorden.
Vorden also was found to have had a fractured eye socket, as well as bruised ribs, a busted lip, in addition to the larger gashes he had received on his arms from Raten's daggers. All the while Meeka kept her eyes on the machines and displays that she had connected to both of the Blades, occasionally taking down notes, and looking in their direction.
Shiro decided to head over to the training hall to get some idea of the damage that might have been done to the hall, and hear any first hand accounts from those who witnessed the incident. Before he could make it to the door Raten, whose face was considerably less swollen and his mouth far more able to speak, called after him to wait.
Shiro turned back to face Raten. "I needed to ask you something" Raten said while he looked around the room quickly and upon meeting Vorden's eyes for a passing second his ears turned slightly red. When Sil saw Raten's behavior a strange idea occurred to him and he looked in Vorden's direction. This was most unusual for Raten. Was he... Embarrassed? Sil hadn't thought such a thing was even possible. Vorden met his gaze and they exchanged a series of expressions that conveyed far more weight in words than most conversations had by others ever could. Sharing a body for the majority of childhood will do that apparently.
Shiro took a few steps back towards Raten, as he noticed whatever Raten had wanted to ask must be more sensitive in nature. In the long time that he had known Raten, going on well over 1000 years now, he had never seen a softer side to him. Needless to say his interest peaked.
"There was somebody in the training hall... A girl". Raten looked away, again acting odd. Shiro stepped closer again. "She said her name was Cassidy?" Raten's voice went up at the end of his sentence as if it were a question.
Shiro was contemplating something for a moment, but in seeing the eager look on Raten's face and how he looked to be holding his breath Shiro responded. "Yes, Cassidy Kinney. She is a descendant of the Sunshield family if I am not mistaken. Quite an impressive ability... Why do you ask?" Shiro was curious to know why on earth Raten would have a reason to mention this young lady.
Raten looked blankly at Shiro for a second, scanning his brain for any valid excuse to inquire about her. Anything at all but there was nothing. At least nothing besides the actual reason, which he was less than willing to admit out loud. The truth was Raten simply wanted to know everything and anything about her. He had a feeling, an uncomfortable feeling deep down, like he needed to be next to her, talk to her, be in her company. Being apart from her felt wrong and left an ache in the pit of his stomach. If he couldn't see her he wanted at least to know more about her. However, he didn't exactly know how to do that without seeming like a desperate young schoolboy. As he realized all of these things his face dropped.
"She kicked a training bag clean off of its stand" he finally managed to say. Shiro's eyes opened wide in surprise. "Yeah, it actually hit me, during our spar... Sent me flying across the room". Raten couldn't hide how pleased it made him feel to say that, as he struggled to hide it. "She is somebody we should keep our eyes on in the future..." Raten added quickly and then looked gutted. He was disappointed in himself, for more reasons than one.
Shiro thought about Raten's words for a moment before walking back towards the door. He stopped in the doorway and looked back one more time. "Thank you, I'll keep that in mind". With that final thought he turned the corner and disappeared out of sight.