Wild ARMs: Off on a Tangent

By: Chibi-chan

Part 18-2: “There’s Something About Laine”

*

James looked disapprovingly at the dark armor that lay in a heap in the corner of his room. “No. Not anymore. I refuse to be Lucied’s plaything anymore…”

*

“He’s late,” Laine murmured to herself, closing an old men’s pocket watch. The watch, along with a few other items including her favorite ARM, was something that once belonged to her grandfather that she kept with her. Back to that place… Has it really been two years since he’s been gone? she thought, clutching the old watch over her heart. “I should just go. I’d be more comfortable doing this alone anyway…” she thought aloud.

“Then go. I really don’t feel up to going anywhere now anyway,” Boomerang wearily told her. He had managed to be right next to her without her noticing for an undisclosed period of time.

Laine, startled, fumbled with and nearly dropped the watch in her hand. “Sheesh, don’t sneak up on a girl like that, you idiot!” she complained loudly to the young man, putting her watch up at the same time. It was about that time she got a good look at James. He was not wearing the dark armor she had grown accustomed to seeing him in. Instead, he wore a simple, loose medium brown jacket to conceal his standard sidearm and the ARM he had received from his father some time ago (at least in theory, he hid the latter ARM; in reality, a part of it was still sticking out). “What’s with the new look?” she asked after looking him over thoroughly.

“… it’s not important. Can we get this over with now?” Boomerang said unenthusiastically, fiddling with his namesake weapon.

Laine shrugged. “Might as well. Come on.”

*

“Laine, where are you?” an old man called out. His “granddaughter” of sorts had gone off on her own again and it was getting dark outside. She was usually back by this time and the old man was getting worried. “Laine?! Elaine Elizabeth Roughnight, if you’re up a tree again, you had better get down now or…!”

A young girl’s cry, followed by what sounded like a gunshot was heard some distance away. The old man made haste toward the origin of the two sounds. What has that girl gotten herself into now?! he thought, reaching for his Derringer ARM in case there was still danger by the time he got there.

When he got there, he saw a frightened little blue-haired girl holding a small, dirty revolver-model ARM, still pointing it at a dead monster. The girl slowly turned her head toward the old man. “Grandfather, I…” she started.

“Laine…” The old man said. A child yet, but with one shot… This isn’t going to be easy… he thought to himself. “We can discuss this somewhere safer, all right? Now, let’s get back before it gets completely dark, child…”

*

Boomerang looked up at the top of a tree. “Laine, just what are you doing up there? I thought we had something to do.”

Laine swiftly shifted on her perch to hang from a branch by her knees to look the young man face to upside-down face. “I know, but…”

“But what?”

“But I really would rather go where I’m going alone,” she told him.

“Why?” he asked. Sheesh, doesn’t she ever give straight answers? Boomerang thought.

“It’s… personal.”

*

His journals… a young Laine thought, looking at the several worn notebooks on the shelf. He’s always looking back to me whenever he writes in them. I wonder what he’s written about me…

“Don’t look in my journals, Laine; I’ll tell you what’s in them when I think you’re ready,” he always said when she asked what was in them. Still, one’s curiosity can get the better of a person eventually, and one fateful day…

*

“… Jamie?” Laine asked after a long time of silent travel with Boomerang.

“What is it?” “Jamie” asked her in return.

“Ever wonder…” she started slowly.

“Wonder what?”

“Wonder if you’ve been taking the wrong path?” she finished.

Boomerang stopped in his tracks. “We’re lost, aren’t we?”

Laine shot him an exasperated look. “Metaphorically, Jamie. I know where I’m going and we’re not lost.”

“Oh, that kind of lost,” the young man said. “I’ve been lost since I met you and your friends.” Cecil particularly, he added mentally.

“I meant someway major, not your silly little crush lane-change,” the girl told him somewhat harshly.

“IT’S NOT A SILLY LITTLE CRUSH!” Boomerang protested. He paused, realized what he had said, and quickly stammered out, “W-what crush? I d-don’t think of h-him that way…”

Laine stared at him with a poker face some would kill for. “Cecil’s right; you do stammer like an idiot when someone hits close to home.” She noticed a little hurt in her companion’s expression, so she added, “But ‘idiot’ is my addition. He didn’t call you anything behind your back, so stop thinking your little sugarplum thinks you’re stupid.”

“I D-DON’T THINK OF HIM T-THAT W-WAY!”

*

… I hope he’s all right… Of course he is; he’s got Elmina with him. She wouldn’t let anything happen to him. Still, if only…

“Jamie?”

Hmph, “my little sugarplum”, indeed. Really, I could come up with better cutesy nicknames in my sleep. I’m just fretful about certain people, that’s all. He’s accident-prone, reckless, physically weak, all good reasons to worry, yep…

“Jamie? Jamie, you in there?” Laine asked with a good flick right between his eyes.

“Ow, what do you want?” Boomerang complained.

“We’re here,” she said, gesturing to a small cabin that was badly in need of repair.

“We’re where?” he asked, “No one told me where we were going.”

“That’s because I didn’t say where in particular I was going,” Laine replied. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be going inside now,” she told him curtly before carefully opening the door and stepping inside.

Boomerang shuddered. “Sheesh, that tone of voice… For a moment, I thought she was going to tell me I was the weakest link or something…”

*

Inside the old cabin was dust, dust, and more dust. Dust on the table, dust on the bookshelves and desk, dust on the old curtains, just dust making everything look dull and gray, not like they were years ago, when the old man named Zepet still lived there with his “granddaughter”.

An old picture frame still stood on the desk, showing the old man and his granddaughter before his death, before the secret he hid about the child he took care of was learned by the one person he did not want to find out about it. Laine picked up the picture and dusted it off. “Grandfather…”

She heard sneezing behind her. She whirled around to see that Boomerang had followed her in.

“Damn, Dad would have a fit if he saw this place. *achoo!* He hates letting dust accumulate like this. *ah-CHOO!*sniffle*” the young man complained. “Laine, might I suggest you get what you came for and get out of here quickly? This pl- pl- plaaaCHOO! *sniffle* This place can’t be good for anyone’s sinuses.”

“… right. Wait outside. I’ll be out in a minute, OK?” Laine told him blankly.

*

*Item “Ocarina” acquired. Ringo now may be summoned upon playing the thing.

*

“Laine, what was that place? And how did you know about it?” Boomerang asked, still sniffling from his limited exposure to the high amount of dust in the old cabin.

“I grew up there. I learned what I was there. Grandfather died there without telling me what I was himself,” Laine replied without any emotion. It was as if the visit had taken all her emotional strength and left an empty shell. “Didn’t tell me. Not even in his final hours. Not even in his final minutes, or seconds. He said he’d let me know what was in his journals when he thought I was ready, but he didn’t tell me…”

“He probably just wanted you to have some semblance of a normal life,” the young man said. Laine’s eyes widened in surprise, but she didn’t stop moving or look at him for one moment. “After the Epitaph of the Sea Wind incident, Dad figured it out. No one has a problem with it, you might like to know.”

“… I see. And why not? I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t exist. The Naga destroyed the others. I’m the last one, but I shouldn’t be the last one,” she said, still in the same eerily calm, emotionless voice.

“But you are, you’re here, and the people who count most don’t have any sort of problem with your existence, so get over it!” Boomerang snapped. “So what if you weren’t born normally? So what?! You think, you feel, you move, you breathe, you LIVE, dammit! Isn’t that good enough?!”

“But…!”

“But nothing! You think you’re the first one who thinks they don’t belong?!” he continued, “I’ve been told all my life by people I barely know that I don’t belong here! Cecil was told he doesn’t belong in his own house by his own father! Lina was told she doesn’t belong by her own people! So get off your Guard’-damned high horse and get over it!”

“Jamie?!” Laine exclaimed, astonished by this rare display of confidence, real confidence, from the original Mister Wishy-Washy.

The young man took a step back, a bit surprised himself. “Sorry about the language at the end. I got kind of carried away, didn’t I?”

The girl nodded. “Yeah, but in a good way, I’d say.” She then showed an even rarer display of not-annoyance with him and gave him a little peck on the cheek, which flustered him greatly.

A long silence ensued…

*

“Uh… Laine?”

“Yeah, Jamie?”

“Remember what I did on the bridge after the Epitaph incident and before you pushed me into that water?”

“The kiss? Yeah, I remember. What about it?”

“I don’t think the infatuation’s quite over…”

“Hoo boy. Just don’t ask about a threeway with Cecil until after you feel confident enough with him first.”

“WHAT?! THREEWAY?! What, you think I’m some kind of pervert?!”

“No, just halfway normal. Sorry ‘bout that.”

“…”

*

End Chapter 18-2

Chibi’s notes:

… erm, yeah. Jamie gets to see aspects of Laine no one else gets to. Unfortunately, most of them are the scarier aspects.

James: Great, now that threeway idea is in my head… X_x;

*Pokes Jamie* Get over it. Laine’ll have a new person to torment soon enough.

James: Thank the Guardians. X_x;