Chapter 024 | /is done spamming you all now

[vitative]

[Murderbot, Aigis is on your front porch right fucking now and you had better answer the door because she's knocking and she's not happy and she needs to know a lot of things right now.

She sneaked away from Minato. Never, ever before would she have considered sneaking away from Minato. But this situation was one that she'd never, ever

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[tickingheart]

[Someone else needs to answer the door. Please. Someone else get it.

No one does.

So he's going to answer it. Maybe.

Maybe he's just going to stand there with his hand on the doorknob, not opening it yet.]

[vitative]

[She gets that feeling. The one you get when someone you care about is close by. It's something she's always had, an ability to know where her friends are... it's not her programming, not a special power. It's just something about her.]

Kaito-san, answer the door.

[tickingheart]

[He does, letting it swing open, and stepping backwards, away from Aigis. He doesn't make eye contact, instead looking at a point somewhere in front of his visitors non-existent feet.]

Aigis-san.

[vitative]

[Now she was here and she had so much to say to him, so many things that went through her mind, questions and scoldings and tears and--]

Why.

[tickingheart]

[He was ready for anger, for tears, for just being ignored.

Not for a question. ]

...

I thought you broke me.

[An attempt at honesty. He's never been very good at honesty. Not even in the stolen memories of Kuroba Kaito.

Truth is out blunt and broken and raw. He hates things that hurt like that. But he tries.]

[vitative]

... You meant to kill me.

[... that hurt more than dying itself. to realize, and to make real by saying. And it shows in her eyes]

[tickingheart]

[And he can't make eye contact. She's hurt. He hurt her.

A nod. He can't look at her, can't lie to her. He's so sick of lying.]

I... I think I did.

[vitative]

You... think?

Why... I thought... you were my friend.

[tickingheart]

[He looks at her, tries to explain without words.

It doesn't work, and he steps away from her, shaking.]

I don't know. I don't know. It happened and I needed you to stop talking I needed you to stop and you wouldn't and I just moved and I didn't think and I don't know I don't know.

I broke you.

[vitative]

I wanted... to believe that it wasn't you. That you didn't want to... That you didn't mean to...

I can't...

[tickingheart]

[She hates him. She hates him. Aoko hates him too. He's malfunctioning and defective and he broke her and she hates him.]

I...

I don't know. I couldn't think.

[He moves forward a half-step, struggling to meet her eyes.]

AIgis-san... ?

[vitative]

Are you going to kill me again?

[Her voice is hurt. But it's not hateful. It's anxious, but not scared. There's a click, as the tips of her fingers slide away to reveal her loaded, hollow hands.]

[tickingheart]

[He steps back, shaking his head. She thought he was...]

No. No.

[vitative]

But I broke you.

[She doesn't intend to be cruel, but it sounds like she does]

I tried to help you, Kaito-san.

[tickingheart]

[He shakes his head. He's had time enough to think it over.]

Defective programming...

[he's trying to explain. trying.]

It wasn't your fault. I... my programming is defective. You didn't break me.

[vitative]

[Defective. The word almost makes her sick. It makes the world flash red for just half a moment, makes her vision pixelate.]

Your programming is not any more defective than mine is.