NT Rangers - Lad 22 - One More (Patreon)

Lad shook Driana awake. Her head bobbed back and forth without strength a few more times before she finally regained control. She jumped back defensively and glared at Yeong.
“You! Stop that!”

“I'm sorry.” Yeong apologized.
“You aren't the one I should have any grudge on.”

Driana sneered at her. “What?”

“I said I'm sorry.” Yeong reiterated.
“Really. I did something wrong.”

Dri furrowed her brow and stared at Yeong's face uncomfortably. “Why's your face twisted like that?” She held her chest and grimaced.
“Your words are doing something to me when I look at you like that. Stop it...” Dri demanded.

“You want me to stop being sorry?”

Lad picked up on what was happening quickly. “Dri, what Yeong's doing is 'apologizing.' It means that she regrets what she did to you and wants you to know that.”

Dri shot a sharp glance back at Lad. “I know that! I'm not dumb. I know the words, but those are just something you people say to comfort yourselves. You say the words like a magic to make a thing right in your head. But her face is weird.”

“I can't change my face.” Yeong was incredibly confused.

Lad suddenly felt very bad. He approached Dri carefully and pointed to Yeong. “You think that they are just words... Is it because nobody has every apologized to you genuinely.” Driana looked at Lad like he was an idiot. His shoulders slumped and he shook his head. The other two also suddenly felt a wash of sadness.
“That's the look someone has when they feel it inside, too. So... When it's not just words they'll show you that they feel it in subtle ways. I know what a fake apology looks like, too, so you can trust me when I say Yeong means that she is sorry. She isn't just saying it to make herself feel better.”

Yeong gulps. “R-really.” She covered her mouth with her hand and had to look away.
“How fucked up is this...” She muttered.

“Insulting me, now, for not knowing?” Driana said defensively.

“Not you, though you are an idiot in different ways...” She fought down the lump in her throat.
“No one every said they were sorry to you like this in your memory?”

Driana crossed her arms and stopped posturing. She clicked her tongue and reluctantly explained. “When the men would come in white coats they would say words like yours too. In their offices were frames with pictures of others that looked like me but different. They tell me that I look 'like I could be about as old as they are' and that I am 'like' those in frame and ask for forgiveness with blank faces. I knew that words were like self-satisfaction that they say to make their guilt go away. When the time came the things they did over and over were the same, even though their words were still in my head. I learned then that you people say things like that and it's empty.”

Kai turned around as she was speaking and lowered her head. Yeong just listened until the end and when she was done she exhaled slowly and said.
“I swear that my words aren't empty. On my life, even if it threatens me or you're trying to kill me or whatever I wont do that to you again. Because I am sorry.”

Dri looked uncomfortable. “W-we'll see.” She turned away from Yeong and looked at Lad.

He smiled and held out his hand. “There anywhere you want to go in here?”

She took his hand in hers and shrugged while glancing at both Kai at Yeong's quiet forms in confusion. “Don't know.”

He nodded. “Do you... Have anything you like?”

She stared at Lad somewhat pointedly, then averted her gaze and shrugged again. “Don't know.” She paused a moment, then answered more properly.
“Eating.”

“What do you like to eat?”

“Human.” There was weight behind those words, as if she felt so casual about the concept of eating a Human that it was second nature to say.

“That might be a little hard for right now. Or... In the future. Anything else.”

She narrowed her eyes at him and shook her head. “No.”

“So, what I'm hearing is that you need to find something you like!” Lad interpreted generously.
“Let's-”

Kai moved to Yeong's side and curled her arm under. “We're going to go debrief!” She stated.
“Just some admin work that needs to get done.”

“But-” Yeong was about to protest, but she saw the look in Kai's eye and nodded her head reluctantly.
“Right... I got leader things to do, I guess. We'll see you... Both, later.”

Driana stared at them blankly as they left. “Strange.”

“Don't worry about that.” His hand tightened around hers as he began walking. He stepped forward and felt himself tugged back like a dog tied to a tree. Driana was standing, planted in place stubbornly. Though she was not moving, she was still holding his hand firm enough that he could not get away.
“Uh... We're going to go find something you like, remember?”

She stared at Lad for a long couple of seconds, then asked. “When you find something... You'll leave me?”

“No.” He said seriously.
“I'll have to at some points, but I said we were going to do this together. So, if we find something, we'll do that thing together. S-so long as I am capable.”

She relented and began to heel to him. “You're very weak. I'll keep it in mind.”

-

The two of them walked around the facility. It was an exploration for both Lad and Driana as he had only really explored the halls and not the features of the ChesAn facility. Everywhere they went, people were polite but cautious. There was a standing order to not interfere too much with Dri, since the collar acted as a functional babysitter and no other measures were strictly required except to wrangle her in for checkups, which were rare. They visited the lunch hall where Lad found that Dri had literally no taste; she did not like food at all and seemed to have no intention to swallow either food or drink. According to her it all tasted like ash. With that location a bust the two of them went to one of the many gyms. Lad thought it would be a good outlet until she broke the first machine by topping out the weights and completely pulling it apart without thinking.

“Oops.” She said ungenuinely.

“No problem!” Lad smiled.
“They'll get a new one. Let's find something else.”

They moved to the hangar bay and although Dri did like the many big meks and vehicles it was not enough to keep her attention for long and Lad guessed that what she was imagining while looking at them was fighting them one-on-one.
“Do you think you could beat a jet in a fight?” He asked jokingly.

“Yeah.” He chuckled as she offered that answer without much thought. He tried to think of anything else she would enjoy and took her to the arcade. She had absolutely no concept of moving a character within a game and it in fact seemed to annoy her a lot that Lad would dominate whatever character she was playing no matter what they played. Finally they reached the physical games but he slyly steered her away from the strength testers with clever misdirection, much to the relief of the staff, and funneled her towards the dancing and rhythm games. She was quite good once he explained the premise. She was able to move her feet in time with the beats. Her score percentage rose with each successive attempt until 100 was the only percent he could see on her side of the screen. Despite losing at everything else she held it over him proudly. He made a note that the arcade was something to come back to in the future.

As they were leaving the arcade Lad felt a familiar tug of an immovable object holding him back. He glanced towards Dri and noticed her staring off in a direction. He followed her gaze and blushed as he noticed her staring very intently at a couple that was embracing and kissing in the corner. Two staff that were probably on a...

'Wait... Everything we've done so far has more or less been a date, right?' He smiled and addressed it.
“H-hey. Are you looking at something else you want to play?”

With no embarrassment she shook her head and pointed very specifically and unmistakably at the couple.
“I want to do that.”

“S-sorry? Why?” He was a bit confused until she looked at him and explained.

“Their faces...” He remembered the explanation about the false apologies.

'She is actually very sensitive to the way people look... She's probably way more clever about reading people's emotions and intent than anyone would've thought. She's just never had an outlet for it before. So is she saying she wants to do that? It's more likely that she just wants to feel what they're feeling.' He reasoned. Lad looked at her and tried to explain.
“There's no real guarantee that you can feel that, even if you do that with someone.” Her expression told him that he hit the nail right on the head.

“So I can't.”

“No...” Lad sighed.
“Do you want to try? I'm just saying that I don't want to mislead you or anything. If we do that same thing and you don't get that feeling we can stop.” As he was speaking she turned to face him and moved closer.

“Like them?” She asked.

“There's no 'wrong' way to do it so long as both people are happy.” He quickly added.
“And willing.”

“And willing?” He knew with that question that he had dodged a few bullets with her.
“I see.” Since she was taller she bent down. Lad looked up. Their lips connected and Dri closed her eyes. Naturally, her arms draped around his shoulders and his around her waist as the kiss went on and on. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, but not long enough for either of them to notice, they separated. Dri opened her eyes and continued to stare down with parted lips. Lad's heart beat quickly, his eyes on those lips that had touched his. Somehow, even with how cold she normally was there was heat in them.
“Happy and willing?” She asked rather forwardly.

“Y-yeah- Yes! Very much so. What about you.”

For the first time since he met her Lad saw her lips curl up into a smile. “Yes.”

As he witnessed that he felt, more so with her than with the others that he did not want Driana to have feel pain or be sad. He opened his mouth to speak, but then out of the corner or of his vision he saw a flash of white hair and heard the familiar voice of his Sister.
“Lad?” Suddenly with her voice the explanation of Yeong washed over him and though he knew it was not Dri, that the person in that other time was different, he still felt pain as if it was and he had to push down that pain consciously. He did not before, but he immediately understood what Yeong had felt with Sebek and Driana.

'Can we... Get away from this irrational sensation really?'