pullmeoutalive | log > what is wrong with us THE SEQUEL

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log > what is wrong with us THE SEQUEL

It was hard to believe that only three hours ago, she and Jolt had been bar-hopping (with the best of intentions, of course) and now Naomi was soaring over a dense forest, zipping out of the way of a few directed lightning strikes, courtesy of one of Black Phantom's puppets.

She had bigger things to worry about, though. More specifically, she had one big thing who had somehow disappeared from the battle. It had been only a few minutes of leaving him to take down the other side's psychokinetic, but when she'd returned, Jolt had vanished. Hatsune and Akira were fighting on the ground, both too distracted to take the time to sniff him out. Sakaki was on hand in a nearby helicopter, but it had been made to land out of concern that the lightning would strike it. The Children could have helped, but they needed to stay together for Kaoru's cleansing ability to function properly.

That left a very frantic Naomi flying about in the hopes of locating one errant Autobot. The one controlling the other espers hadn't been very comforting, having glanced in the girl's direction earlier.

"Worried about your friend? You should thank me. I've taken good care of him."

She'd hardly been reassured-- if anything, Naomi's ire and worry had only tripled, until she'd not only knocked out the esper manipulating the lightning but picked up her speed. The fight was nearly over; she could see the bright light from The Children's area now, but she wouldn't be relieved until she knew her Autobot friend was safe.

"Jolt-san!!" She called now, skimming the tops of the trees and then flying a little lower. "Please, answer me!"

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So he reacted to that? That opened up a whole new realm of possibilities, most of which made Naomi display a smile that Jolt was probably better off not seeing. There were more complicated ways to cheer him up, and there were much easier ways. This just so happened to be one of them. "Hm?" She asked innocently, stilling her hand for a moment. "Stop what? This?"

And now this time she used both hands.

"Naomi!" The squirming increased, he was very steadily getting himself tangled up in the covers, but so did the laughter. For the life in him he couldn't figure out why he was laughing, but it seemed his body just reacted to some things on its own.

"This is not 'taking it easy'!"

"It's easier to 'take it easy' when you're not hiding under the covers-- in other words, when you're in a better mood." She grinned triumphantly, finding her own sense of enjoyment in his laughter. Had she known she could have gotten this much of a response from him, she might have tried this sooner. "And it's hard to be a grouch when you're laughing, isn't it?"

This was supremely unfair- he'd never been ticklish before. At least, not that he knew of, because really, who in their right mind tried to tickle a giant robot?

"You little- wait until I get my hands on you!" It took quite a bit of flailing, but he finally managed to free himself from the covers, only to pounce on the esper with a triumphant smile of his own.

"Wha--!" Not having expected him to retaliate so swiftly, Naomi wasn't prepared to brace herself, and instead fell backwards with a yelp, landing flat on her back-- still, thankfully, on the bed. "Jolt-san!!"

Oh, this was a little awkward. He had been expecting some form of resistance, and now that he suddenly found himself on top of her, he was a little lost.

Naomi was less lost, and more red, but managed to quirk an eyebrow at the one pinning her down. If she was lucky, she could get out of this before he got any mischievous ideas. "You're not planning to sit on me all day, are you?"

Now it was Jolt who turned red. "No."

For lack of a better plan, he settled for mussing her hair before rolling off of her and back onto the mattress.

The hair mussing earned him a half-hearted swat as the esper sat up, giving her head a shake and attempting to finger-comb her hair to the best of her ability.

"So," she began conversationally, wincing as she hit a tangle, "are you feeling any better?"

Jolt watched her out of the corner of his eye for a moment and gave a shrug as best he could lying down. "Little bit. Less like I'm baking to death, anyway."

"We'll have to stay on top of the water, I think." Pointedly, she nodded at the glass he'd discarded the other night. "I'm sure you won't want to be stuck in here another day if this fever persists." And it better not, she thought stubbornly; she didn't like seeing her friend forced to be immobile for the most part.

Ah, right. He retrieved the glass and handed it over, a little smile playing on his face- mostly because he recalled what had happened after he discarded it. (Provided, of course, he hadn't dreamt the whole thing, and he really hoped he hadn't.)

"You got that right," he remarked. Being cooped up was never something he enjoyed.

Naomi also seemed to have had her memory sparked by the glass, although she turned just the faintest tinge of pink before she moved off the bed to fill it again. There were doubts, of course. He'd been feverish and frightened, maybe not in his right mind... but there were other feelings she couldn't discount either.

"Tomorrow," she promised, returning the water to him after a moment. "You're already doing this well on the first full day, so they shouldn't keep you here too long."

"That's good to hear." He took the water and drank it like a good patient- he really didn't want to stay in here all week. "Soooo... what do I do in the meantime?"

"Rest, mostly." This was safe ground. This was easy. This was procedure. "Sakaki-san will probably bring some food in later, run a few tests if you're up to it, that kind of thing. And I--" She frowned, glaring at the floor for a minute. "I'll be here to ensure that my supervisor doesn't come barging in again."

There was a sigh from Jolt. He'd been jarred awake quite violently and resting didn't seem like something he wanted to do- but no doubt as the long night caught up to him, that would change.

The mention of Naomi's supervisor had him frowning again, but this time in thoughtfulness rather than outright disgust. "When you said this wasn't going to be easy- you weren't kidding."

To that, Naomi shook her head with a smile, still staring downwards. "I'm not very good with joking. And he's... always like that, always claiming that nearly every single man out there wants me, I'm just too innocent to notice, so he has to keep me safe--" She hesitated at that, grimacing as she selected a better choice of wording. "Pure. I mean, he spent four years raising me to be the kind of woman he wanted to marry, so..."

And now she glanced away. "If he's too much to deal with, I completely understand."

He snorted. "Too much? I've dealt with worse- and am prepared to deal with worse. Especially for you." He punctuated his point with that affectionate smile, but it quickly became a teasing grin. "But I can't promise I won't hit him again."

"You'll be justified if you do," she assured him. "But try to do it when I'm not looking, so that I can say I didn't have the chance to stop you from doing it."

The girl lifted herself back onto the bed, assuming a solemn expression as she did so. "But while we're on the subject, we should probably talk about... um, last night."

"Duly noted."

He'd been wondering when this was going to come up- especially considering the disaster that had been their morning. He rubbed at the back of his neck, casting her an awkward grin. "Probably."

"Well, first and foremost, we're friends." So far, so good. "And allies and partners and... you understand. So-- even if we... I mean, you should probably have time to think things through, and... I know your first day you said you didn't have anyone like that, but with your war-- there was-- you were feverish-- n-not that it wasn't very ni-- um!"

The poor girl was already incredibly flustered thirty seconds in.

Just because he had said he didn't have someone didn't mean he never would. And, granted, that that someone would be a human had never occurred to him. But there were friends first, and they knew each other. Trusted each other. Cared about each other. And somehow that had changed, deepened.

"Naomi, this is new for me, too," he said, and to his credit he wasn't teasing Naomi about how red she was turning. "But I know I care about you a lot- more than a lot. Probably more than a friend and ally should." A pause. "Maybe I was feverish, but that doesn't mean I didn't realize what I was doing, and given the chance, I wouldn't do a thing differently."

She was silent for a few minutes after he'd finished speaking, eyes lifting to his almost uncertainly. She could have blamed it all on his hologram, on what others would call his semblance of humanity, but Naomi knew better than that. She'd known him as a car first, a robot second, and Jolt overall, and no matter the form, her feelings regarding him hadn't changed.

"Good," she whispered finally. "Because I feel exactly the same way."

He waited, catching her gaze with his and holding it. This was bound to get more complicated when they changed him back- if they changed him back, but he was determined not to think on that particular issue until he was fully recovered.

That smile was back on his face, the one, it seemed, that was specially reserved for Naomi. "Does that mean I can give you another kiss, then?"

Naomi returned his smile with a soft, warm one of her own, followed by a nod. It might have been selfish to think this, but she was glad this had happened when it did. Not that she would have minded if it had happened at the bar, but Jolt got to experience more this way.

"For the record," she replied, head tilted, "you're more than welcome to do that whenever you want."

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