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"Alright…" Vin agreed, before hesitating for a second, "I-I should go and apologize to Xenovia, shouldn't I?"
"That would probably be for the best. Come, I'll lead you back to the bus."
Vin got up, and began the long walk back to the bus with Griselda. Along the walk, Vin glanced at the nature around him, it was peaceful… tranquil… It helped put his mind at ease, while he mulled over Xenovia and Griselda's words in his head.
It was okay not to like killing… He… He just needed to learn to draw the line somewhere. Where that somewhere was… Well, that was something that he'd have to find out another time.
Not too long later, the bus came into sight. Griselda held Vin back for a moment.
"I'll go get Xenovia for you," Griselda smiled, as she walked inside the bus.
Vin stood there, trying to get his thoughts together about how exactly he was going to approach apologizing to Xenovia. Things had gotten pretty heated after all…
Soon enough, the door of the bus opened, and out stepped Xenovia herself, tailed closely by Griselda who stood in the doorframe of the bus, preventing either party from getting back on.
Vin, deciding he should be the first one to speak, sucked in a breath.
"I'm sorry!" "I'm sorry!"
The two looked up at each other in confusion.
"What, why are you sorry?" Vin asked, "I acted like an insensitive asshole to you, and obviously I brought up stuff you didn't want me to."
"I acted like my usual muscle-brained idiot self," Xenovia grimaced, "I didn't think for a single second, and just tried to force my ideals on you. And when you did bring up sensitive topics, I lashed out at you. That's not the way allies should treat each other; how could we beat the enemies in front of us if we spent our time beating each other instead?"
"Stop doing that."
"What?"
"Referring to yourself as 'Muscle-Brained Idiot'."
"Well, it's true."
"Yeah, no it's not."
"Sure it is."
"No, look… Xenovia, you're anything but an idiot, alright? An idiot wouldn't reflect on their mistakes like you have, they wouldn't care as much for their teammates like you have. You are not an idiot, okay?"
Xenovia looked taken aback, "A-Alright…"
"Good, so...uh…" Vin raised his hand, "Friends again?"
Xenovia took a moment to look at Vin's hand, before clasping his forearm with her own hand in a classic roman handshake, "Yeah, friends."
"You got the popcorn ready yet?" Ethan yelled from the couch.
"Just give me a second here," Irina walked over to the couches, clad in her pajamas, with three massive bowls of popcorn cradled in her arms.
"Here, I'll take one from you," Jafar, clad in his own sleepwear, reached over and grabbed a bowl from Irina, setting it on his lap between Ethan and Vanessa.
"Here you go, Vinny!" Irina beamed, as she passed a bowl to Vin, who had long since cleaned himself up.
"Ah, thanks Irina," Vin took the bowl of popcorn and set it next to him on the couch, "So, movie night… What are we watching?"
"Hmm… I don't know, I got a lot of stuff, but I thought this one would be fun!" Irina held up a DVD case into the air.
"Hmmm… What's this?" Vin eyed the cover, before flipping it over to the back, "A romance comedy?"
"Yep! I thought that a gaijin like you would like this kind of stuff," Irina teased, placing the movie into the DvD player, and plopping down at the foot of the couch, next to Ezekiel, who reached over and grabbed a handful of popcorn out of the last bowl Irina held.
Vin shook his head, "I feel like I'm being attacked."
"Shush, the movie's starting," Xenovia sat down on the couch next to Vin, "Pass me the popcorn."
"Sure, sure," Vin obliged, passing over the bowl of popcorn to Xenovia, who now wore a fuzzy pair of green pajamas that frankly, looked adorable on her.
As the film began to play, Vin sat back, surrounded by his friends. At that moment, even if Vin wouldn't have chosen this life for himself, he would be lying to himself if he didn't say that it was the little moments like this that made everything a little more worthwhile.
I'm alive I tell you, ALIVE!
How have you all been? I've been absolutely drowning in schoolwork, so that's just so much fun! I actually may have shot myself in the foot by basically sacrificing a day where I could work on school to write instead. It kind of pisses me off a little that all of my best ideas come when I absolutely cannot write.
Moving past that, I'm so happy to announce that as of this chapter, we've reached a trifecta of milestones, holy shit! We managed to hit over 7,500 views, 150 follows, and 100 favorites! You all are SO INCREDIBLE! This chapter took my blood, sweat, and goddamn sanity, so I really hope you all enjoy it! I feel like it came out pretty well.
I also wanted to announce that we're nearing the end of this story arc! We're going to be skipping forward a lot more in these next few chapters. I have the plan laid out for how these last few chapters are going to happen, so prepare yourselves. I've had the idea for the final climax in the back of my mind since I started writing this story! We have four chapters left to go 'till this arc is over, get ready for a wild ride!
Now, onto the chapter notes!
Chapter Notes:
[Vin VS Xenovia Fistfight:]
I really just wanted to include this part in this arc, it's a simple little scene that shows some improvement on Vin's side, a result of his training. Also, it helps show off that Vin and Xenovia like to bond over competition like this, and additionally, it'll help show that Vin's striving for improvement in order to match his comrade's power, Vin's slowly becoming a battle maniac…
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