orendalogs | IT'S YOUR DESTINY!!!

Declan nodded his understanding, sliding his plate closer and setting to the food with his characteristic gusto. He did happen to glance at Aoba and wondered about the other man's face. Was he uncomfortable with the closeness? He hadn't intended to get in the way, but he was overlarge and couldn't always help it. Thinking he'd crowded Aoba too much, Declan shuffled away, holding his plate close as he cut and devoured the omelette.

Gosh, that sure was nice...

"I don't know if it's dry or not. It tastes great, though. I like all the...the bits, in it," he remarked, not sure what to call it. He shrugged it off, eating near the counter so he could return his plate when he was through. He debated over the pros and cons of staying awake and being a good host versus getting more rest and being a safer soldier. He didn't strictly need sleep, but it was always better to be well rested. Still, he felt bad leaving Aoba milling about with nothing to do.

"You know, you're not restricted to the quarters, right? If you get bored, you can always go explore the Tower. Anywhere you aren't allowed to be you won't be able to get into, anyways. So don't feel like you have to stay here. I don't want you to sit around doing nothing while I'm just sleeping. You should stretch your legs and do what you like."

Aoba watched Declan from the corner of his eye for a few moments. Once reassured that the omelet wasn’t too terrible after all, he picked up his own half of it and followed Declan’s example, eating while they stood right at the sink there like the couple of bachelors that they were.

It wasn’t bad, thank goodness. Would have been lighter and fluffier if Granny had been the one cooking but…on the scale of possible results when it came to Aoba cooking, it wasn’t too bad.

He managed to nod after Declan spoke, swallowing his bite before answering. “I figured I’d take Ren and go see Tess, and look around a bit with those maps Ghost gave us. Ah, which reminds me, he’s still in sleep mode in your room…I’ll go get him before you turn in.”

Which also reminded Aoba that he hadn’t made the bed behind him or anything. Should he offer to change the sheets? It wasn’t like he was a guy who sweated a lot in his sleep or anything like that, but…well, Declan sure would be ‘treated’ to the sight of his bed in an unmade, sleep-rumpled state.

Oh, wait…he’d already been in the bedroom to change. Too late for that, then.

He had passed it up and only glanced long enough to be pleased that Aoba had slept at all. The fact that it was a mess didn't bother him in the least. Really the main reason his home was so clean was because he had nothing else to do with his time, ever. He cleaned because it helped fill the hours that ticked by with nothing for him to do. Besides, it was just a bed.

"Don't let Ms. Everis poke around Ren too much. She's a good woman, but she'll sell just about anything and she'll spend all day trying to buy him off of you if you don't make it pretty clear he's not for sale. She's tough like that," he sighed, finishing off his omelette and glancing around to make sure there was nothing else before setting his plate down and rising it, only to stop when he remembered that Aoba seemed to prefer having something to do. He would have puzzled over whether it was more polite to clean everything up as he normally would or to leave the task behind, but he knew Aoba couldn't be expected to wait for his confusion and let the plate settle.

"I took the leftovers last night. Thank you. It was nice to have later," he mumbled, standing there in awkward silence for a time before gesturing towards his room.

"I'm...uh...I'm going to go sleep, now. Unless you wanted to do something or needed to talk? I can clean up," maybe he wasn't so decided on the matter. Still. "I'm not sure what to do," he admitted after a moment, frowning faintly.

"I should sleep some, because it's better for me, but I feel bad leaving you alone so much when you're not even settled in yet. And I promised to help you, but we haven't even talked about how...I'm sorry. I'm not very good at hosting."

Declan’s indecision gave Aoba something else to focus on, at least: something outside himself and his own confusions. He blinked, lifting his head, and finally offered a smile he hoped was reassuring.

“Declan, you’ve already been a better host than I could have even hoped for. I don’t think anyone I know back home would have gone so far for a total stranger, especially one making such weird claims as I have…and that includes me, too.” There might be a lesson in generosity to learn in here, somewhere.

Aoba reached up and patted Declan’s shoulder. It was like patting a warm mountain, but it was a deliberate gesture of camaraderie. “Get some sleep, you deserve it. I have your numbers now, so I promise, Ren or I will call you if we run into anything we really need help about.”

He hunched slightly, though the patting seemed to cheer him somewhat and he looked less crestfallen when he straightened and nodded his agreement. It was much easier for him when he had a second opinion. sometimes he would disagree and find out what he wanted to do, sometimes he'd go with what the other person said because it was clearly sensible if he had already deliberated on the same point. Sleeping sounded good and if Aoba was sure he was alright...

"As long as you promise. I don't mind being woken up if you need something. If you run into any problems at all, call me, alright?" he rumbled, looking serious for all his generally gentle expressions. Dusting his hands off and looking around the apartment for anything else that might need his immediate attention, the Guardian eventually decided there was nothing demanding his presence and nodded, heading for bed. He stopped in the doorway, turning to watch Aoba for a long moment before murmuring "Good night, Aoba," and closing the door behind him. Ghost watched the entire meal and departure in silence, content to observe.

Aoba watched the door close and…ah.

“…He just shut the door with Ren still in there with him.”

Ren had been on the bed with him, of course. Declan would be able to spot the furry little construct right there on one of the pillows, curled up in sleep mode. In his own sleep-groggy daze, Aoba had neglected to rouse his little companion after he’d woken, himself.

Welp. Nothing else to be done. Aoba put his plate down and walked over to the bedroom door, resigning himself to a bit more awkwardness as he knocked softly upon it.

"C-come in?" Declan called softly from where he'd ended up squatting at the edged of the bed, both hands on the mattress and head resting onthe backs of his knuckles as he stared at Ren. He didn't know what to do. Was it like a real dog? Would he wake up? Would he move on his own? Should he get Aob--oh thank the Traveler, Aoba was knocking.

When the door opened, Declan looked up, mildly fretful and whispering, "I didn't want to wake him up!" Because that would be rude and everyone needed sleep. Even Exo's powered down on occasion, so wouldn't Ren be the same? Besides that, Ren wasn't his property so it wouldn't be right of him to handle the dog.

In retrospect, Aoba probably shouldn’t have thought knocking on Declan’s door ten seconds after he’d shut it would be taken as rude or annoying. Still, he ended up being relieved by Declan’s blurted whisper, not to mention the way he was all hunched at the bed like a king-sized kid. A guy as big as he was had no right to be so…innocently ignorant. It was downright endearing.

“It’s alright,” Aoba answered softly, stepping over. “He’s in sleep mode. He’ll only wake up if I do—”

He stroked the little Allmate between the ears. There was an immediate chime and Ren’s eyes popped open as he looked around. If he was startled by Declan’s proximity, he didn’t show it.

“Good morning Aoba, Declan. Is everything alright?”

“Mm, everything’s fine,” Aoba said, scooping his partner into his arms. “It’s just Declan’s turn to sleep. Sorry for forgetting him in here,” Aoba then directed to their host, even as he was already beelining back to the door and slipping through it. “Rest well, and we’ll see you later.”

He gave Declan a moment, then click! Shut the door between them again, now with his Allmate properly in his company.

He was left blinking owlishly at the closed door before he stood, climbed into the bed and settled on his back to stare at the ceiling. His sheets smelled different. Turning his head a bit, Declan sniffed at the pillows, curious until he realized it was Aoba he was smelling. Granted it smelled mostly like his own soap and shampoo, but there was something unfamiliar there as well, making Declan turn away and stare at the ceiling with color rising to his cheeks. He had no idea what it even meant and gave up on trying to understand, turning onto his side away from the scent on the pillow and closing his eyes.

He slept through most of the day, steadily breathing, chest rising and falling heavily if Aoba chanced to peek in or needed to use the connected bathroom - something neither of them had thought about. Two people in a single occupant home was bound to be a bit of a tango. He didn't wake up again until well after noon, shuffling out of his bedroom and getting a glass of water to sip while he stared out the windows, oblivious to his surroundings for a long time before he looked around in search of Aoba.

Aoba was nowhere to be found, though there was plenty to say that he’d been there instead of it seeming like he’d vanished without a trace.

The bag of clothes and supplies Declan had gotten for him had been tucked as inconspicuously as possible beside the couch, given that Aoba had the impression he’d be sleeping there from now on. The kitchen had been cleaned up, and the leftover ingredients had been organized in the fridge along with some cans and packages that were the leftover junk food and sodas from Aoba’s rushed escape from Steelport.

His personal satchel was gone, and Ren too, of course, but the greenish crystal was still there—except it had been moved to the little coffee table and was now playing paperweight to a scrap of paper Aoba had dug out of his bag. Sure, he could have asked Ghost to relay a message but…he felt like leaving an old-fashioned note. It wasn’t much, but there it was, in Aoba’s clumsy and shorthanded but not unreadable scrawl.

…As long as Declan had some way to get a translation of Japanese script, anyway.

Declan –

Went to see Tess, then take a walk around the city. Won’t go far. Didn’t forget my promise, either: I’ll call if I run into any problems. You can call me too if you want, just ask Ghost. See you later!

– Aoba

It took him a moment to find all the evidence of Aoba inhabiting the space, longer still to realize the note was for him and finally get the nerve to have Ghost explain it. Blinking at the note, Declan felt himself smiling for no good reason. Shrugging it off, he folded the note into a small square, took it to his room and tucked it away in a drawer. It was another hour before he worked up the nerve to contact Aoba.

Waiting for the call to be picked up was something he wasn't at all accustomed to, but then the only time he used comms were the ones on duty and in the tower, which were really just radios.

"Hello? Aoba?" Declan's voice rumbled after a bit, silver eyes flicking side to side as though someone might listen in on his side. Only Ghost was there, however.

"I was...Checking in, I guess? I don't know. I'm checking to see if you need anything." He couldn't exactly say he didn't know what to do with himself. Maybe he should pick up another patrol? More money, after all. Not that he was anywhere near in need of it, but it would be nice to keep a steady income with two people in the home.

"Should I go to work? Are you alright, still?"

The call only rang twice before it was answered with a bright “Hey, good morning Declan!” from Aoba, set to a backdrop of the sounds of the city.

Aoba waited for Declan to speak after that, then answered with a smile to the screen floating above his Coil. “I’m okay! Did you find my note? I went and saw Tess like I said…and you were right, too. She can really be stubborn when she wants something, huh? Well she didn’t take Ren but she did take the clothes I wanted to get rid of, and I talked to her about that courier offer, too. That was about an hour ago, Ren and I have just been exploring some since then.”

He paused briefly, then added more sheepishly, “We’re on our way back now. I woke up with a small headache and it’s not getting any better. Don’t worry about me, though. If you need to work, go on and go. I’ll just lie down with my headphones like I usually do.”

Except for the part where he was out of medication, and he wasn’t about to bother asking Declan what people in the future took for headaches. His had never responded to any medication but the special formula Granny had developed for him, after all.

A headache? Naturally Declan worried immediately, but Aoba passed it off as something simple and common. was it rude to ask about someone's condition? Would it be pushy? was it any of his business?

"If you're sure..." he murmured, not sounding at all sure himself. He thought about it a second more before adding, "If you want to...I'm going to Venus in a few days. There's the biggest library in the galaxy there - the Ishtar Academy libraries. There might be some info there about your portal things, but I wouldn't know what to look for. You and Ghost can go through things while I patrol. I'm on Earth until then so you've got plenty of time to decide. I just thought I'd let you know," he murmured, humming to himself briefly before smiling again.

"I'm glad Ms. Everis was able to help you and wasn't too much trouble. And I hope you get the courier job. It'll be a great way to familiarize yourself with the city. And I know you're not comfortable with me buying things for you," he added, unable to keep the gloomy noet from his voice. It only bothered him because he worried he was actually doing something wrong.

"Ah, but you should get something for dinner? I'll be here when you get back. I promise."

He promised. After saying those words to Declan several times to reassure him, something about hearing them back…it was touching, somehow. That and…well, while there were certainly people out there that would have looked at Declan and found him clingy or smothering, Aoba still had that feel that the Guardian just didn’t have many friends, which was an absolute shame. A guy like him deserved to have dozens of them…not just some out-of-space guy that crashlanded in a bathroom.

“I know you will be,” he answered, an unthinking statement of belief in that promise. “And I’ll see what I can find.”

Would Tess laugh at him showing back up again to spend the few coins he’d earned in selling her his Decker clothes? Nah, probably not. Probably just glad to make a sale. Hopefully. So let’s see, with the ingredients still in the fridge…maybe he could afford something like rice and make fried rice with the eggs and some of the seasonings for the nikujaga….

Realizing he’d zoned out a little to think, Aoba shook his head and focused again. What else had he said. Venus? So, uh…space travel?

“…Venus sounds like a good idea. Do we take a scenic route for that?” Be brave, Aoba. “You need to show me what the big deal is about flying, after all.”

Scenic route? To Declan, it was all scenic.

"Um...yes. Sure," he answered, not entirely sure he could hold up on his word there, since opinions made all the difference, but he assumed that having never traveled in space before, Aoba would have plenty to oogle.

"We'll use transmat to board the ship, like when we came to the Tower. Then you can settle into the ship and we'll head for Venus. It won't take long if we use the warp, but I'll take the long way for your first flight. It'll take a few days, though. If you're not comfortable with the close quarters, we'll want to make the jump. I leave that up to you," he offered, oblivious to everything, including how clingy he might have sounded. He didn't know how to act, wasn't sure what the best answers were and everything was a new experience, leaving him to wing virtually everything.

It wasn't an easy position to be in, but he did his best.

"A few... days?" Okay, wow, that might be a bit much. Never in his life had Aoba done any kind of traveling that required days to do so. He'd been on the island of Midorijima all his life, after all.

... Until the last month, anyway.

"Okay, maybe just a partial scenic route. Enough that I can look around and see what it is you like so much, but not so long that it takes days just to get there," he laughed a bit, rubbing his neck with his free hand.

Silver eyes gazed off thoughtfully for a moment, light tongue sliding over white lips. He sighed, pursing his mouth in a pout of indecision before nodding to himself.

"Alright. I'll make the jump most of the way and travel the last leg manually. If you want to see any of space at all we'll have to come out at least a day away from the planet, though. Jumps are instantaneous - point A to point B, but like folding space over. B becomes A...I don't know. I'm not very good at explaining things without a visual aid, but it's quick and you don't see anything. It's not something where you can look out the window and enjoy things as you pass. Um...anyways, I'll see you soon?" he asked, clenching his teeth after a moment of thought. Even he wasn't naive enough not to hear the hopeful tone of his voice.

Stupid.

As per usual, Declan tried to explain things and Aoba failed to understand, not from any fault of Declan’s and his attempt at describing things, but…it was like a bird trying to describe flight to a turtle, or something like that. Aoba guessed it wasn’t possible for Declan to jump to an hour or two from their destination, and didn’t want to sound more foolish by asking, so he didn’t.

How bad could a day in a small ship be? Maybe he’d be too busy gawking out the windows to even notice the time go by. It was possible. He was going to be traveling in space, and that wasn’t even possible for the common man in his time.

The obvious turn of tone in Declan’s voice caught his attention again, anyway, and Aoba would have sworn his heart did a funny little wrenching thing. Declan was a big puppy.

“Yeah, like I said, we’re on our way back," he reassured his endearing host. "Be there in twenty minutes or so, okay?”

"Uh...yes. Yeah. See you then," Declan mumbled, ducking his head and hiding behind his hair, though there was no one to see his face in the first place. The connection ended and he reached up to run a hand down his face, peering between thick finger to stare at Ghost who stared right back.

"What?" Declan rumbled, shoulders tense and eyes tilted slightly to one side.

"Nothing. I think it's lovely that you're actually talking to someone."

Again the man ducked his head, mumbling some incoherent thing as he turned away and moved off to tidy up around the home. He didn't really know what else to do if he wasn't getting ready for work so he did all he could in the scope of sharing a home. Including ordering a new bed which would, with any luck, arrive that evening before they had to sleep.

Making Aoba spend extensive time on the couch just seemed like a passive aggressive way of asking him to leave. While Declan didn't want to seem clingy or smothering, he really just wanted Aoba to feel safe, comfortable and welcome. So he ordered a trundle bed.

Seemed legit.

On his end, when Aoba cut the call it was with a chuckle that dissolved into a sigh. From his perch in his satchel, Ren tilted his head in query.

“Aoba. You neglected to tell Declan we have already located three portals in close vicinity to the tower.”

Aoba flinched at the…reminder? If Ren hadn’t been Ren, he could have called it an accusation, but….

“…I know,” Aoba agreed, rubbing his temples as he started walking once again. “But it’s not like I’m going to jump into one just because I’ve found it. There’s no telling what’s on the other end and…I’m just not ready to go through all that again. Eventually I’ll have to but…maybe Declan’s right, maybe we can learn something at those libraries.”

It was worth hoping, right? Even if Aoba had watched dozens of people walk right through the portals he’d seen, free-floating and spinning with their distinct light, and not in the sense that Aoba had walked through the ones he’d encountered. No one had seen them, no one had reacted to them. They’d walked through them like sunbeams, to no effect on either the person or the portal itself.

Nobody was a “Chosen One” like Aoba was. The portals didn’t exist to them.

He managed to stop by Tess again, trading back one of his coins for a bag of rice, but by the end of the transaction his headache was knocking hard against his temples—entirely unrelated to the woman’s manner of barter, for the record. By the time he made it back to Declan’s door and had pressed his hand to the sensor, Aoba had a distinct pallor and was looking forward to doing nothing more than crashing the couch for a while.

The door hissed open and Declan looked up from where he was reviewing a series of documents ported over to him as a pre-brief for his next major mission. It was a serious task on the wartable, handed down to him from the Vanguard leaders themselves. It was entrusted to him, widely known as one of the more loyal and dedicated Guardians, and when the door opened and he saw Aoba's face, Declan wondered if there was someone he could pass the file off to.

"Aoba?" the Titan asked, rising from his seat on the couch partly out of concern and partly as a reflexive gesture of politeness. He tapped the coffee table, dismissing the file display, and closed the distance between himself and the blue-haired man in a few short strides. Ducking his head a bit and peering at the other man with a small frown he gestured to the couch, reaching in without comment to take the things Aoba was carrying.

"Go sit down," he rumbled, voice a gentle command as he turned away towards the kitchen. He was on autopilot by that point, seeing Aoba in poor health putting him into field medical mode - something very few Guardians did, as all of them were maintained by their Ghosts and medical care was redundant for the undying. His focus came from whatever and whoever he had been in the past. Declan didn't question of discount instinct, however. He put the groceries down, went for a washcloth and soaked it, letting the water run over it while he pulled up his own network interface on the kitchen wall and placed a rush order on tea, tea necessities and basic human medications. Granted he overdid it there, since the likelihood of Aoba needing antibiotics was low, but better safe than sorry. Painkillers, fever reducers, antibiotics...tap tap tap, down the list. He should have thought better about outfitting his home for the needs of a natural human.

Stupid. Stupid.

"These headaches..." he murmured, chewing his bottom lip briefly as he squeezed out the rag then approached his guest, extending it in offering. "Do they happen often?"

Aoba had no interest in protesting. He was hurting and there was no hiding it. He let his satchel slump off his shoulder as he kicked off his shoes beside the door, and Ren hopped out to follow him as he staggered towards the couch. He stayed seated upright just long enough to pick his little companion up and cuddle him up to his chest before lying down, swinging his feet up into the space where he was remotely aware Declan had been sitting a few moments ago.

No matter. Aoba put his head down on the armrest and closed his eyes, wondering what he was going to do about these headaches of his now that he was truly out of Granny’s medication.

Declan’s approach cast a pleasant shadow through the light shining in from the window and was encouragement enough for Aoba to crack an eye open for his host. It took him a few moments to identify the washrag, but he accepted it with a warm feeling of gratitude—swiftly undermined by a sharp jolt through his temples. Groaning softly, Aoba draped the rag over his face so it covered his eyes and forehead both, and attempted to somehow will away the pounding in his brain.

It was probably just his imagination, but that almost seemed to make it worse.

“Yeah,” he agreed quietly, curling his fingers into Ren’s fur for comfort. “My Granny…she makes the medicine for them, but…I’ve been running out, using it up. I took my last pill yesterday.”

"If you had said something, we could have replicated it from an existing example. Since you already took it...' Declan trailed off, worried that there was something seriously wrong and that he was going to be unable to do anything about it. was it some important medicine for a serious condition?

"There is nothing physically wrong with him," Ghost spoke up quietly from where he'd been hovering and listening, scanning Aoba stealthily.

"Then what's the problem?" Declan demanded, doing his best not to let too much of his fretting seep into his tone. Mostly it came out like the low warning growl of a sleepy, poked bear. he was too distracted to notice.

"Psychosomatic symptoms?" Ghost suggested, earning a blank look of confusion from the Guardian. "Physical illness caused by mental distress," the construct clarified, and Declan sighed softly, releasing a tense breath as he shook his head and leaned over to carefully remove Aoba's shoes, finding it necessary to do something with his hands.

"Well, that makes sense, right?" the Titan asked, setting the boots aside and staring at the socked feet underneath with a thoughtful look. "You're under a lot of stress right now, aren't you?" he pointed out, reaching in again and gripping one of Aoba's feet, thumbs digging into the arch. No questions or comments, just doing it. Stretching the foot, pulling the toes. Pop. Pop. Pop. In lieu of medication, releasing natural endorphins was all Declan could offer until the ordered pills and tea arrived.

"If it isn't some kind of cranial abnormality, the most we can do is treat the symptoms," Ghost added, floating near Aoba's face briefly before drifting away, unwilling to be the cause of further headache's with his lights and sounds.

"It's not, right?" Declan asked, pausing to look at Aoba directly. "You're not sick and hiding it, are you? We have good doctors in the city...we just don't need them in the Tower."

Aoba would beat himself up over the consumption of his last pill later. There was no way for him to have known—though in retrospect, after everything else this future world could do, why shouldn’t it be able to duplicate a medication that Aoba had believed to be a formula unique to Tae?

But right now? After a brief jolt in response to the touch to his foot, Aoba was startled into a low groan as those strong fingers kneaded into his soles. He hadn’t been out walking for terribly long, but Aoba had never gotten the experience of a foot massage after being out walking for a while. It didn’t magically make his headache go away, but it certainly…gave him another source of sensation to focus on beside the pain behind his temples.

When Aoba didn’t reply—neither immediately, nor a few moments afterwards—Ren volunteered instead: “Aoba is not ill, although the cause of his headaches is otherwise unknown despite their chronic nature and the fact that they have never responded to any medication other than the one formulated by his grandmother. While his stress levels have been elevated over the last month, he has actually shown drastic improvement over the course of the last twenty-four hours—that is, the timeframe since escaping the Deckers and entering Declan’s care instead.”

“Don’t say it like I’m some lost dog,” came a blurry grumble from Aoba, his cheeks showing a bit of a flush below the cover of the washrag draped over his eyes. Even so, the young man was going distinctly limp but for a few toe-wriggles stretching out his freshly-popped joints.

Under normal circumstances Declan likely would have recoiled at the last words Aoba spoke, afraid he'd made some social faux pas again. His own social discomfort, however, was not nearly as important as Aoba's health, and he settled for hunching his shoulders and working the second foot.

"You don't get to complain," Declan rumbled, shaking his head. "You needed help and you didn't say anything," the Titan added, obviously quietly offended by the fact. He rubbed diligently none the less, trying not to feel as hurt as he did, knowing that most people would have behaved the same. No one wanted to be a burden on others, and no one wanted to be unwell. Aoba did what he did because he thought it was all he could do or thought it was the best course of action. Declan trusted that, even if it came to the same end.

"I ordered some basic medication and some tea. Don't worry about dinner tonight. I'll have something brought up and you can just rest. Alright? I'll make the tea when it--"

Bing bong.

"--I'll make the tea now. And you just-- Ren or Ghost, one of you answer the door, please --relax. You relax and I'll handle everything else tonight and if you feel better tomorrow we can have a proper dinner."

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