“I just saw an old nutty dude flirting with someone, Ax’. I’m dyin’.”
She did, however, peek out of the vent to look at him.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-”
“Eh-”
Into the air vents she jumped. She was going to hide in the ventilation system until this was all over. Nope nope nope. She might be immune but the virus still made her quite sickly.
He parked his bike carefully and waited a moment for Rebecca to slip off before doing the same. Zero glanced back before letting out a small snort of laughter at the sight of her disheveled hairstyle, barely held together in a ponytail. With practiced ease he slipped his own hair back out, letting it uncurl as it fell down his back. “Yup.”
His own order was simple – just a plain vanilla cone, and even getting that was solely so that Rebecca didn’t feel singled out eating ice cream by herself. After paying, Zero took a seat off to the side of the small store as he waited for Rebecca.
An odd sense of… strange, for lack of a better word, seeped over him as he watched her. Watching himself. Here he was, Class-S Hunter and demon to mavericks and hunters alike, sitting in an ice cream shop with a girl who viewed him as her father. It was surreal.
“… Thank you.”
“Maybe I should’ve put my hair up before the ride here.”
She huffed in response to his snort, sticking out her tongue before going to make her order.
A strawberry-vanilla soft serve cone, and several napkins to share, and she plopped down in another chair by his. She offered him a couple napkins before starting to eat her own ice cream.
“Here you go.”
Then, she blinked in surprise before her expression slowly formed into a bright grin.
She didn’t think she knew what he was thanking her for, but it made her feel warm and fuzzy inside anyway.
Send me a ♂ and a question and my muse’s father will answer it.
“I am not cruel for throwing away something that wasted my time, just as I am not cruel for throwing away a broken television. It did not meet my expectations, so I threw it away to start anew.
I had the perfect blueprints to work with, so there was nothing wrong with starting over. There are a lot of things money can buy, but the eight and a half years wasted on that malfunction is not something I can get back.”
Send me a ♂ and a question and my muse’s father will answer it.
“Eight and a half years and my valuable resources wasted on that accursed thing. I never wish to see it ever again, and I would have dumped it in the ocean had it not been for what the neighbors would have said. The outskirts of Abel City worked well enough and I told them it was going to a relative’s home.”
It didn’t take too long for the requested change of clothing to be delivered, and Dakota found herself standing outside of the shower with the clothing held tightly against her chest. She felt more than a little awkward being there and was glad that no one seemed to be planning on heading out into this section of the base. She hadn’t been lying when she said this was a fairly unused area, and just hope it continued to be that way.
– Even though she had told Rebecca to take her time, though, she couldn’t help but notice that a… lot of time was passing.
Five, ten, fifteen… twenty five… half an hour…
“Ah-” Dakota turned hesitantly, knuckles gently rapping against the door frame before she carefully cracked it. All she would be able to see from her vantage point was tiled walls and floor; the stalls were blocked off by a partition and each shower had its own divider as well. Still she hesitated going in, not wanting to intrude on Rebecca’s privacy.
“Are– Are you okay–?”
Rebecca rubbed at her eyes with her free hand when she heard Dakota again, softly speaking in response.
“I-I’m okay. I’m a-almost done.”
She rinsed off the rag under the water as well as herself, turning off the shower before peeking out. Then she pulled back the divider. She looked a lot like a drowned rat, but at the very least she was clean now.
Probably the least shocking thing now was that her hair was not ashy, but rather vibrant golden blonde. Her artificial skin was also quite thoroughly cleaned now. Rebecca quietly spoke again.
“I’m d-done. I’ll be a-another moment.”
She took one of the towels and bent over to wrap what was left of her hair in it when the strands obeyed gravity, twisting it and letting the end rest on her head. Then she wrapped the rest of herself in the larger one and looked kind of comical if it wasn’t for the serious situation.
She took a bit of time to dry her body off, probably dripping everywhere but it didn’t look like she cared much. The water would just dry after all, not a big deal.
It didn’t take long though, as her hair was already half dried by the time she was finished with herself and put the towels to the side, looking at the pile of ripped and filthy clothes. Then she went over to the door to speak to Dakota.
“Um… I-Is there anything I c-can wear? I d-don’t think mine are salvageable…”
“A new aquarium opened up last week. We could head there afterward.” It seemed… fairly boring to him, but kids were weirdos that liked looking at boring things.
His hair was twisted before he coiled it around his neck twice, the end of his ponytail getting tucked down the back of his jacket. Uncomfortable, but it would keep i from getting knotted or whipping Rebecca in the face as they rode into the city.
Once in the hangar he took a seat on the front of his ‘bike, motioning for Rebecca to slip onto he back before gunning the engine. It seemed to roar to life before settling down to a gentle purr. A sharp jerk and they were off, dust marking their path as he sped out of Hunter’s.
Being a passenger for Zero was an… extreme sport. There was no chance of his crashing but it was hard to be convinced of that with the way he weaved through traffic, darting up right behind and beside other vehicles before cutting around them– and all the while refusing to drop his speed.
It barely took him any time to get them to the ice cream parlor.
“Oh, that sounds nICE-”
When he took off, she didn’t even have time to squeak as the wind blew into her face.
Rebecca had to hold on tight to her Papa, not because she was afraid of the speed, but because she was probably light enough to fly right off the bike and into the concrete if she didn’t. And she didn’t want that to happen of course.
‘It feels like flying’ she thought to herself. And wondered what it was like to fly under her own power.
By the time they got there, and she got off the bike, her hair was blown back quite thoroughly. She brushed her hair down and tied the end of her hair in a low tail so it wouldn’t stick up.
Back in the Game 
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