Post by Sadie on Mar 7, 2010 18:30:24 GMT -5
Ever since they had come back from their mission to Enthopa, Soare had been acting a little. . . strange.
Despite his exterior, which was as passive and calm as ever, Aaron could feel the tumultuous state of his insides, and they were unpleasant. His eyes were glaring daggers at the table as his mind churned over the matter, thinking it over to himself. Over the years, he had come to know her like the back of his own hand, able to read her emotions with a glance.
Not anymore. Everyone had noticed the eccentricity that had taken over her behavior, and no one knew the cause. Although some dismissed it, saying that she would return to normal soon, the male was determined to figure out what was going on. If he looked at all of the differences, he should be able to draw a conclusion, right?
With bloodless knuckles from squeezing the pen too hard, he found a spare napkin on the table and began to write it out, staring at the words furiously as though they contained an answer that he only had to intimidate out of them.
1. She isn’t eating as much.
The chatter around him was dull and tired, and thus easy to tune out for the boy sitting beside his two babbling sisters. The food in front of him was bland, colorless, but filling, and he was eating it with the idea that if he had his mouth full, his sisters wouldn’t bug him. They were busy tittering about something from the day before, anyway.
It wasn’t long before she entered, trailing behind her sister by only a couple steps. Koyu was strutting straight toward his sisters as usual, and so he ignored her, focusing instead on the blonde behind her. The girl sat beside him with a tired smile and a murmured greeting, reaching for a piece of fruit. He watched in surprise as she began to pile her plate with food, different fruits and vegetables and breads.
Oh, she was saying something to him. “Are you busy today?”
“What? No. . .”
Their conversation continued like that, simple and tired, although Aaron couldn’t help but notice that she wasn’t eating much of the food that she had stacked onto her plate. Come to think of it . . . she wasn’t eating any of it. She was busy nibbling on a small fruit, but that was all, and Aaron was startled when she suddenly stood up.
“I have to go, I’ll see you later!” She elaborated no further and Aaron didn’t have a chance to question it as she left in a hurry. Staring after her in confusion, he glanced back down, only to realize that she had taken her loaded plate with her.
Where was she taking it. . . ?
Frowning downward in frustration, Aaron pressed the tip against the napkin once more.
2. She makes excuses to leave the room at weird times.
The screen flickered, reflecting lights off of her lenses as she stared at the television. Something about the movie was enrapturing her, and she was positively intent on the characters that were moving over the scene.
The movie bored him, to be frank. He wasn’t certain what she loved about it, but she had wanted to watch it, and so he had swallowed his irritation and agreed to watch it with her. But he had lost interest in the first five minutes and was now watching her subtly out of the corner of his eye, slightly amused at the look of fascination that her expression held.
Finally, at a slower part of the movie, she glanced at him, smiling and murmuring a question to him that he didn’t hear. Leaning forward, he rested his forehead against hers a little and gently captured her lips with his, hoping to distract her from the stupid movie that she was so entranced by.
And it worked. A noise of surprise had sounded in the back of her throat, but she soon fell into the steady rhythm, and soon there was no room left between them as the movie continued on, unnoticed by the distracted pair on the couch.
The door on the other side of the room slammed open and the two flew apart, settling back into their previous situation of simply leaning against each other, struggling to look nonchalant as the new alien made his way into the room and began to look through the movies on the nearby shelf.
Already, the boy was trying to think of a way to pull her away from the movie again, but then her eyes widened, and she sent him a horrified look.
“I-I forgot! I have to go!”
“What?” The confusion on his face was visible, and the girl flushed almost guiltily.
“I’m sorry, I really am! I-I’ll come by your room later or something, promise! I’m sorry, I’m a horrible person, but I have to, I mean, I need to. . .”
Her head was hanging by now; she was obviously frustrated with herself. Sending him one last apologetic look, she hurried from the room with her shoulders hunched, leaving a very confused Aaron sitting alone on the couch.
A noise of irritation. Trying to fight the growing feeling, he pressed the pen to the napkin even harder and continued to scrawl the next angry line.
3. She dodges questions and tries to lie. Tries.
Her fingers were lightly stroking at her upper arm, a classic sign that she was nervous.
And Koyu seemed to know it, too, for she leaned forward even more than before and gave her sister that look that made Soare tell her anything. “If you weren’t with Aaron and you weren’t in our room, where were you?”
The girl’s eyes shifted to the side and she avoided everyone’s gaze as she answered softly, “Nowhere. Just . . . playing my e’aif.”
“No, you weren’t,” Koyu countered, lifting an eyebrow. “Because your e’aif is in our room right now and I looked in there.”
Flushing, the girl hunched a little in her seat, glancing quickly at Koyu and then Aaron and then returning her eyes to the floor where she studied her toes intently. Aaron would have felt bad for her, but he wanted to know just as much as Koyu did. She was acting suspicious in a way that wasn’t normal for Soare.
“I, uhm. . .”
“Soare!” The shout came across the cafeteria and a tall female appeared next to Soare, her ears flicking and her nose twitching irritably. The girl’s responding expression was a mixture of fear and relief as she glanced upward. “You were supposed to be in the office ten minutes ago, we have a shipment coming in!”
“Oh!” The girl scrambled to her feet and gave the others a hasty smile. “So, uhh, talk to you later! Bye!”
“A temporary setback,” Koyu muttered, her devious eyes calculating as she watched the girl’s escaping figure. “I’ll figure out what’s going on if it kills me.”
Aaron couldn’t help but agree.
“That was a week ago,” the boy muttered to himself, thinking aloud. “Two days later. . .”
4. She obeys Koyu more than she usually does.
“Good morning!”
Her voice was its usual, happy trill as she greeted him from down the hall, running up to give him the same affectionate hug that she usually did. His response was tired and small, a simple murmur of a hello and a quick embrace, but she was too energetic for that. Leaning up to give him a quick peck on the cheek, she clasped his hand tightly in her own as they began to walk to breakfast together.
“So I was thinking th-“
Her words were cut off by her sister suddenly popping up in front of her, grinning like the Cheshire Cat after a particularly productive day. “Soare, I left my bag in my room. Go fetch it.”
“But Koyu,” the girl started to reply, her fingers tightening around Aaron’s a little, but the look that her sister gave her cut her off almost instantly. A commanding look, as though she had no chance of arguing. “Alright.”
Reluctantly letting go of Aaron’s hand, she shuffled away, leaving an irritated Aaron in the presence of the girl that he rather wanted to share a few thousand volts with. “Leave her alone,” he growled, annoyed, and the girl simply laughed at him.
“She owes me,” Koyu responded flippantly, a toying smile on her face. “For not telling anyone about her ‘special friend.’”
“Her-“
“Byyeee!” Wiggling a few fingers at him, the girl ran off to join his sisters, already laughing about something that they were telling her. Aaron watched her go with a seething glare, wondering how his girlfriend could be related to someone so. . . that.
And what the blast was a ‘special friend?’
Scowling, Aaron hurried on to the next item, writing faster now.
5. There are weird noises coming from her room.
His fingers rapped on the wood lightly, but they were met with silence. And the door, usually left open, was locked, which was even more odd for the room of the Ganmade twins. Especially since Soare had asked him to come and get her for dinner.
He was considering leaving when all of a sudden something moved inside. Audibly. It was followed by a strange shuffling noise, and a quiet murmur, followed by a laugh. There was something almost like a tapping, and then more laughter sounded. . . laughter that sounded a lot like Soare’s.
The door finally opened, just a crack, and the girl slipped out of the tiny space and shut it behind her before registering that Aaron was there. Until she turned around, and then she seemed almost startled. “Oh! You’re here!” Her expression was almost. . . flustered. “Hey!”
“What were those noises?” he murmured to her, glancing back up at her door.
“Uhmm . . . me. I fell, yeah, I tripped over my desk and fell.” Which didn’t explain some of the other noises. But she was already tugging him along, having already changed the subject. Inside, Aaron sighed. Why did she feel the need to lie?
Whatever she was hiding, he hated it already.
Now he was chewing on the back of the pen, denting it in his frustration. Instead of adding to the list, now he wrote a question on it instead.
6. Who is Bento?
This time, she didn’t know he was coming.
He knew that Koyu was busy and wouldn’t bother him, and he had watched Soare go into her room and lock the door once more. Normally, he wasn’t much of an eavesdropper, but the weird noises had started once more, and now he was dying to know what was in there that she felt the need to hide.
Confusing enough, but then he heard her talking, and the words just piled on more confusion. “Stop it, Bento!” A light laugh, followed by a little murmuring sound. “No, cut that out! You’re so silly.”
Bento?
“Oh, you’re sweet,” he heard her murmur, before she laughed again. “Shhh, shh. Silly.”
He leaned closer to the door when suddenly he spotted Koyu coming around the corner, apparently not busy like he thought. Without a second thought, he ran, slipping down the hallway and confused by what he had heard.
“Aaron!”
The boy quickly stuffed the napkin into his pocket, looking up as the blonde in question trotted up to him with a smile. A smile he didn’t return, although he put his arm around her shoulders when she was near enough. “I haven’t seen you all day,” she continued, hugging him tightly.
“Yeah. . .”
He thought about confronting her, demanding to know why she was lying to him. To everyone. It was frustrating, and he opened his mouth a little when there was suddenly a shout from across the room.
“There’s a monster loose! Monster! In the second hall!”
Jumping to his feet, Aaron was about to tell Soare to go somewhere else, but the girl was already preparing to run. “No!” she shouted, and then she was running off, toward the second hallway.
“Wh- Soare!” Was she mad?! Sprinting after her, it was hard to keep up with the girl that was running so hurriedly through the crowd, where the operatives had begun stampeding wildly and trying to get away from whatever had invaded their base.
Wheeling around the corner, he spotted the thing almost instantly.
It was huge. It looked like a bird, but with some distinctly reptilian features, and it towered near the ceiling. With feathers that shifted in vibrant colors, and burning yellow eyes, it was trotting on huge talons down the hall, and Soare was running right for it.
“Bento! What are you doing?!” she cried, screeching to a halt in front of the bird. It stopped in its tracks and leaned down to nuzzle her affectionately, with a beak that was larger than her entire head. The whole bird was more than double her size, but the girl wrapped her arms around its beak and hugged it tightly.
Wait a minute. Bento?
“I told you to stay in the room,” she murmured sternly to the bird as Aaron approached, and the crowd around him was staring at the girl as though she was insane. Koyu popped up somewhere nearby, too, watching lazily while leaning against the wall. Soare continued to stroke the bird, which closed its eyes happily at her.
“Soare,” he said quietly, coming to stand beside her. “What is this?”
Glancing at him, her expression turned entirely guilty. “H-he’s. . . my . . . friend.”
“Where did he come from?!” From somewhere in the crowd, Nellie’s voice sounded excitedly as all eyes stayed on the large creature.
Now Soare looked even more guilty, her shoulders hunching. “I. . . brought him back from Enthopa.” Her eyes were pleading. “He was all alone and he liked me! So I told him he could stay with me! I didn’t think he’d be allowed to stay here, I had to hide him! But he won’t hurt anyone, promise, he’s really sweet and nice!”
Bento was busy nipping lightly at her sleeve, obviously smitten with the girl. Laughing, she stroked his beak, and he butted against her hand gently, letting out a series of clicks and chatters at her, the noises that Aaron had heard in her room.
The girl’s eyes turned imploringly at the crowd, large and vulnerable. “Please don’t make him leave, please! He’s the best pet ever, he’ll love all of you, promise!”
There were murmurs of assent, some moving forward to examine and pet the large bird, which was enjoying all of the attention. Koyu moved to stand beside Soare, snorting at the riot. “Maybe now we can help you figure out what he eats so you can stop feeding him your food.”
“This is what you’ve been hiding?” Aaron asked quietly, watching the large bird quietly. Soare whirled around to face him, her expression suddenly panicked.
“I’m so sorry!” Her hands clasped together tightly, her eyes welling up with tears. “I know I lied to you, I was so scared that they would make me take him home, and I feel horrible, I really do! And I kept having to leave to go take care of him, I know, I’m a bad person! Please don’t hate me, Aaron, please, I never wanted to lie to you, I won’t blame you if you hate me forever and ever!”
“I couldn’t hate you,” he murmured, wrapping his arms loosely around her. “It’s fine.”
She shook her head and buried her nose into his chest, shaking a little. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I’ll never lie to you again!”
He stroked her hair a little, when suddenly the bird leaned over and started nipping at her arm a little. The girl gave the creature a shaky grin and patted his beak. “Bento, this is Aaron. He’s the bestest ever, so be nice to him.”
Letting out a series of clicks again, the bird pushed on Aaron’s shoulder before returning to the crowd, and Soare sent Aaron a happy smile, hugging him tightly again.
“Does this mean you won’t do what I say anymore?” Koyu asked from the side, lazily. “Now that everyone knows?”
“You were blackmailing her?” The growl came from deep in Aaron’s throat as the pieces clicked together in his mind, and Koyu smirked and saluted at him before disappearing into the crowd. Making resolves to kill her later, Aaron glanced back at Soare, who was looking a little sheepish.
“As soon as this dies down, let’s go somewhere private,” she murmured quietly, smiling up at him. “I have to make up for some time with you.”
Nodding in agreement, Aaron let her break away from him so that she could calm her new friend, who was already at home in the new base with all of the operatives stroking at his long feathers. Watching, he held in a little smile as Soare climbed up onto the bird’s back, leading him down the hall to a spare room where they would build a little home for him.
It looked like things would finally go back to normal.
---
YAY BENTO <3
He's Soare's new pet and I'm totally drawing him soon. X3 BENTO IS AWESOME GUYS AND SOARE LOVES HER NEW FRIEND.
hee hee this was fun to write, HOPE YOU ENJOYED~
Despite his exterior, which was as passive and calm as ever, Aaron could feel the tumultuous state of his insides, and they were unpleasant. His eyes were glaring daggers at the table as his mind churned over the matter, thinking it over to himself. Over the years, he had come to know her like the back of his own hand, able to read her emotions with a glance.
Not anymore. Everyone had noticed the eccentricity that had taken over her behavior, and no one knew the cause. Although some dismissed it, saying that she would return to normal soon, the male was determined to figure out what was going on. If he looked at all of the differences, he should be able to draw a conclusion, right?
With bloodless knuckles from squeezing the pen too hard, he found a spare napkin on the table and began to write it out, staring at the words furiously as though they contained an answer that he only had to intimidate out of them.
1. She isn’t eating as much.
The chatter around him was dull and tired, and thus easy to tune out for the boy sitting beside his two babbling sisters. The food in front of him was bland, colorless, but filling, and he was eating it with the idea that if he had his mouth full, his sisters wouldn’t bug him. They were busy tittering about something from the day before, anyway.
It wasn’t long before she entered, trailing behind her sister by only a couple steps. Koyu was strutting straight toward his sisters as usual, and so he ignored her, focusing instead on the blonde behind her. The girl sat beside him with a tired smile and a murmured greeting, reaching for a piece of fruit. He watched in surprise as she began to pile her plate with food, different fruits and vegetables and breads.
Oh, she was saying something to him. “Are you busy today?”
“What? No. . .”
Their conversation continued like that, simple and tired, although Aaron couldn’t help but notice that she wasn’t eating much of the food that she had stacked onto her plate. Come to think of it . . . she wasn’t eating any of it. She was busy nibbling on a small fruit, but that was all, and Aaron was startled when she suddenly stood up.
“I have to go, I’ll see you later!” She elaborated no further and Aaron didn’t have a chance to question it as she left in a hurry. Staring after her in confusion, he glanced back down, only to realize that she had taken her loaded plate with her.
Where was she taking it. . . ?
Frowning downward in frustration, Aaron pressed the tip against the napkin once more.
2. She makes excuses to leave the room at weird times.
The screen flickered, reflecting lights off of her lenses as she stared at the television. Something about the movie was enrapturing her, and she was positively intent on the characters that were moving over the scene.
The movie bored him, to be frank. He wasn’t certain what she loved about it, but she had wanted to watch it, and so he had swallowed his irritation and agreed to watch it with her. But he had lost interest in the first five minutes and was now watching her subtly out of the corner of his eye, slightly amused at the look of fascination that her expression held.
Finally, at a slower part of the movie, she glanced at him, smiling and murmuring a question to him that he didn’t hear. Leaning forward, he rested his forehead against hers a little and gently captured her lips with his, hoping to distract her from the stupid movie that she was so entranced by.
And it worked. A noise of surprise had sounded in the back of her throat, but she soon fell into the steady rhythm, and soon there was no room left between them as the movie continued on, unnoticed by the distracted pair on the couch.
The door on the other side of the room slammed open and the two flew apart, settling back into their previous situation of simply leaning against each other, struggling to look nonchalant as the new alien made his way into the room and began to look through the movies on the nearby shelf.
Already, the boy was trying to think of a way to pull her away from the movie again, but then her eyes widened, and she sent him a horrified look.
“I-I forgot! I have to go!”
“What?” The confusion on his face was visible, and the girl flushed almost guiltily.
“I’m sorry, I really am! I-I’ll come by your room later or something, promise! I’m sorry, I’m a horrible person, but I have to, I mean, I need to. . .”
Her head was hanging by now; she was obviously frustrated with herself. Sending him one last apologetic look, she hurried from the room with her shoulders hunched, leaving a very confused Aaron sitting alone on the couch.
A noise of irritation. Trying to fight the growing feeling, he pressed the pen to the napkin even harder and continued to scrawl the next angry line.
3. She dodges questions and tries to lie. Tries.
Her fingers were lightly stroking at her upper arm, a classic sign that she was nervous.
And Koyu seemed to know it, too, for she leaned forward even more than before and gave her sister that look that made Soare tell her anything. “If you weren’t with Aaron and you weren’t in our room, where were you?”
The girl’s eyes shifted to the side and she avoided everyone’s gaze as she answered softly, “Nowhere. Just . . . playing my e’aif.”
“No, you weren’t,” Koyu countered, lifting an eyebrow. “Because your e’aif is in our room right now and I looked in there.”
Flushing, the girl hunched a little in her seat, glancing quickly at Koyu and then Aaron and then returning her eyes to the floor where she studied her toes intently. Aaron would have felt bad for her, but he wanted to know just as much as Koyu did. She was acting suspicious in a way that wasn’t normal for Soare.
“I, uhm. . .”
“Soare!” The shout came across the cafeteria and a tall female appeared next to Soare, her ears flicking and her nose twitching irritably. The girl’s responding expression was a mixture of fear and relief as she glanced upward. “You were supposed to be in the office ten minutes ago, we have a shipment coming in!”
“Oh!” The girl scrambled to her feet and gave the others a hasty smile. “So, uhh, talk to you later! Bye!”
“A temporary setback,” Koyu muttered, her devious eyes calculating as she watched the girl’s escaping figure. “I’ll figure out what’s going on if it kills me.”
Aaron couldn’t help but agree.
“That was a week ago,” the boy muttered to himself, thinking aloud. “Two days later. . .”
4. She obeys Koyu more than she usually does.
“Good morning!”
Her voice was its usual, happy trill as she greeted him from down the hall, running up to give him the same affectionate hug that she usually did. His response was tired and small, a simple murmur of a hello and a quick embrace, but she was too energetic for that. Leaning up to give him a quick peck on the cheek, she clasped his hand tightly in her own as they began to walk to breakfast together.
“So I was thinking th-“
Her words were cut off by her sister suddenly popping up in front of her, grinning like the Cheshire Cat after a particularly productive day. “Soare, I left my bag in my room. Go fetch it.”
“But Koyu,” the girl started to reply, her fingers tightening around Aaron’s a little, but the look that her sister gave her cut her off almost instantly. A commanding look, as though she had no chance of arguing. “Alright.”
Reluctantly letting go of Aaron’s hand, she shuffled away, leaving an irritated Aaron in the presence of the girl that he rather wanted to share a few thousand volts with. “Leave her alone,” he growled, annoyed, and the girl simply laughed at him.
“She owes me,” Koyu responded flippantly, a toying smile on her face. “For not telling anyone about her ‘special friend.’”
“Her-“
“Byyeee!” Wiggling a few fingers at him, the girl ran off to join his sisters, already laughing about something that they were telling her. Aaron watched her go with a seething glare, wondering how his girlfriend could be related to someone so. . . that.
And what the blast was a ‘special friend?’
Scowling, Aaron hurried on to the next item, writing faster now.
5. There are weird noises coming from her room.
His fingers rapped on the wood lightly, but they were met with silence. And the door, usually left open, was locked, which was even more odd for the room of the Ganmade twins. Especially since Soare had asked him to come and get her for dinner.
He was considering leaving when all of a sudden something moved inside. Audibly. It was followed by a strange shuffling noise, and a quiet murmur, followed by a laugh. There was something almost like a tapping, and then more laughter sounded. . . laughter that sounded a lot like Soare’s.
The door finally opened, just a crack, and the girl slipped out of the tiny space and shut it behind her before registering that Aaron was there. Until she turned around, and then she seemed almost startled. “Oh! You’re here!” Her expression was almost. . . flustered. “Hey!”
“What were those noises?” he murmured to her, glancing back up at her door.
“Uhmm . . . me. I fell, yeah, I tripped over my desk and fell.” Which didn’t explain some of the other noises. But she was already tugging him along, having already changed the subject. Inside, Aaron sighed. Why did she feel the need to lie?
Whatever she was hiding, he hated it already.
Now he was chewing on the back of the pen, denting it in his frustration. Instead of adding to the list, now he wrote a question on it instead.
6. Who is Bento?
This time, she didn’t know he was coming.
He knew that Koyu was busy and wouldn’t bother him, and he had watched Soare go into her room and lock the door once more. Normally, he wasn’t much of an eavesdropper, but the weird noises had started once more, and now he was dying to know what was in there that she felt the need to hide.
Confusing enough, but then he heard her talking, and the words just piled on more confusion. “Stop it, Bento!” A light laugh, followed by a little murmuring sound. “No, cut that out! You’re so silly.”
Bento?
“Oh, you’re sweet,” he heard her murmur, before she laughed again. “Shhh, shh. Silly.”
He leaned closer to the door when suddenly he spotted Koyu coming around the corner, apparently not busy like he thought. Without a second thought, he ran, slipping down the hallway and confused by what he had heard.
“Aaron!”
The boy quickly stuffed the napkin into his pocket, looking up as the blonde in question trotted up to him with a smile. A smile he didn’t return, although he put his arm around her shoulders when she was near enough. “I haven’t seen you all day,” she continued, hugging him tightly.
“Yeah. . .”
He thought about confronting her, demanding to know why she was lying to him. To everyone. It was frustrating, and he opened his mouth a little when there was suddenly a shout from across the room.
“There’s a monster loose! Monster! In the second hall!”
Jumping to his feet, Aaron was about to tell Soare to go somewhere else, but the girl was already preparing to run. “No!” she shouted, and then she was running off, toward the second hallway.
“Wh- Soare!” Was she mad?! Sprinting after her, it was hard to keep up with the girl that was running so hurriedly through the crowd, where the operatives had begun stampeding wildly and trying to get away from whatever had invaded their base.
Wheeling around the corner, he spotted the thing almost instantly.
It was huge. It looked like a bird, but with some distinctly reptilian features, and it towered near the ceiling. With feathers that shifted in vibrant colors, and burning yellow eyes, it was trotting on huge talons down the hall, and Soare was running right for it.
“Bento! What are you doing?!” she cried, screeching to a halt in front of the bird. It stopped in its tracks and leaned down to nuzzle her affectionately, with a beak that was larger than her entire head. The whole bird was more than double her size, but the girl wrapped her arms around its beak and hugged it tightly.
Wait a minute. Bento?
“I told you to stay in the room,” she murmured sternly to the bird as Aaron approached, and the crowd around him was staring at the girl as though she was insane. Koyu popped up somewhere nearby, too, watching lazily while leaning against the wall. Soare continued to stroke the bird, which closed its eyes happily at her.
“Soare,” he said quietly, coming to stand beside her. “What is this?”
Glancing at him, her expression turned entirely guilty. “H-he’s. . . my . . . friend.”
“Where did he come from?!” From somewhere in the crowd, Nellie’s voice sounded excitedly as all eyes stayed on the large creature.
Now Soare looked even more guilty, her shoulders hunching. “I. . . brought him back from Enthopa.” Her eyes were pleading. “He was all alone and he liked me! So I told him he could stay with me! I didn’t think he’d be allowed to stay here, I had to hide him! But he won’t hurt anyone, promise, he’s really sweet and nice!”
Bento was busy nipping lightly at her sleeve, obviously smitten with the girl. Laughing, she stroked his beak, and he butted against her hand gently, letting out a series of clicks and chatters at her, the noises that Aaron had heard in her room.
The girl’s eyes turned imploringly at the crowd, large and vulnerable. “Please don’t make him leave, please! He’s the best pet ever, he’ll love all of you, promise!”
There were murmurs of assent, some moving forward to examine and pet the large bird, which was enjoying all of the attention. Koyu moved to stand beside Soare, snorting at the riot. “Maybe now we can help you figure out what he eats so you can stop feeding him your food.”
“This is what you’ve been hiding?” Aaron asked quietly, watching the large bird quietly. Soare whirled around to face him, her expression suddenly panicked.
“I’m so sorry!” Her hands clasped together tightly, her eyes welling up with tears. “I know I lied to you, I was so scared that they would make me take him home, and I feel horrible, I really do! And I kept having to leave to go take care of him, I know, I’m a bad person! Please don’t hate me, Aaron, please, I never wanted to lie to you, I won’t blame you if you hate me forever and ever!”
“I couldn’t hate you,” he murmured, wrapping his arms loosely around her. “It’s fine.”
She shook her head and buried her nose into his chest, shaking a little. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I’ll never lie to you again!”
He stroked her hair a little, when suddenly the bird leaned over and started nipping at her arm a little. The girl gave the creature a shaky grin and patted his beak. “Bento, this is Aaron. He’s the bestest ever, so be nice to him.”
Letting out a series of clicks again, the bird pushed on Aaron’s shoulder before returning to the crowd, and Soare sent Aaron a happy smile, hugging him tightly again.
“Does this mean you won’t do what I say anymore?” Koyu asked from the side, lazily. “Now that everyone knows?”
“You were blackmailing her?” The growl came from deep in Aaron’s throat as the pieces clicked together in his mind, and Koyu smirked and saluted at him before disappearing into the crowd. Making resolves to kill her later, Aaron glanced back at Soare, who was looking a little sheepish.
“As soon as this dies down, let’s go somewhere private,” she murmured quietly, smiling up at him. “I have to make up for some time with you.”
Nodding in agreement, Aaron let her break away from him so that she could calm her new friend, who was already at home in the new base with all of the operatives stroking at his long feathers. Watching, he held in a little smile as Soare climbed up onto the bird’s back, leading him down the hall to a spare room where they would build a little home for him.
It looked like things would finally go back to normal.
---
YAY BENTO <3
He's Soare's new pet and I'm totally drawing him soon. X3 BENTO IS AWESOME GUYS AND SOARE LOVES HER NEW FRIEND.
hee hee this was fun to write, HOPE YOU ENJOYED~
YOU DID A FANTASTIC JOB ON IT, ESPECIALLY WITH IT BEING AARON'S PERSPECTIVE AND ALL <3 WELL DOOOOONE YOU ROCK! X3
