A bouquet of disdain; A box of risky bets

[Mr.Fabulous]

(//this is actually just the other post's ending, edited to feel more developed)





... After several minutes of walking up the path they reach the point where the estate now came into view; the soft sunset now glittered gorgeously across the open ocean, the estate complex to the opposite side as a great scenic backdrop to the picture, "... Wow... New Tokyo sure is a wonderful place..."

Jaden then turns to face David, "... don't you think so, David?" and she smiles politely.

"But the people aren'€™t..." He smirks wryly in reply.

His remark sent her bursting in laughter, "... Yeah. That would make this planet 'meh', I guess..."

He shrugs his shoulders, "The goods and the bads... got to take them together."

"Si... The good and the bad... just like... uhm..." It seems she began to daydream as she went on to speak half to herself, "... Just like David... Though you have your quirks and slow-wit... you still have your mo---"

And all of a sudden she realizes what she had just been saying and her eye shoots wide-open in shock, "... OH WAIT!!! WHAT AM I SAYING?!" She turns back to face him, her face blushing a bit, "You didn't have to hear all of that!"

He raises an eyebrow, "... I'm guessing that was money?"

"...s... Si... The mo-ney... that must be it." She tries to point out with trouble.

"Oh? Money wasn't it?" He narrows his eyes suspiciously.

She blushes even more, "Wh-wh-what are you implying?! It's the money, no?"

"You'€™re just filling in what I thought it was. Come on, what was it?"

She stammers, "Wh-what d-do you mean 'j-j-just filling in what you thought?' I-isn't it wh-what it was?" She quickly looks away, "... It's not like you'd be able to understand anyway, what with your slow-wit."

"Slow wit? Now your going to insult me and my money?"

Jaden suddenly pauses, then her tone goes apologetic, "... I... I'm sorry for that... but... how...

"... How could you come to believe it? We've only met a few months ago, and... Just anyone could shrug it off as nothing... as you've always done... but... I..."

She covers her face with her hands, "... I don't know... I just don't know anymore..."

"What don't you know? What have I been shrugging off? You'€™re not making this any clearer." David replies in confusion.

She lifts her hands off her face to stare at him in a bit of disbelief, "Have... have you not noticed anything at all, David? Is it really that not understandable? Haven't you even noticed the signs, at least?" her eyes twinkling with tears.

"Signs for what?" he wonders.

Pausing for a while, Jaden bites her lip as she contemplated deeply...

... And all of a sudden her eye shoots wide-open in realization of something, "... of course...

"Listen closely, Freelancer, for this'll probably be the last clue I'd be able to give you..."

She slowly walks over to David, eventually standing right in front of him; she places her cyborg hand on his right shoulder, and she slowly closes her eyes.

Then, she leans her head over to his left shoulder, and slowly heaves in a deep breath on his neck; she pauses for a moment before walking away, "... There... That should be sufficient enough... if that don't tell anything, then I don't know what will...

"... Except for the blunt truth... but I don't think you deserve such bluntness unless you still don't get it..." She turns away to look at the sunset for the next few minutes.





... Eventually, David touches the affected area with his right hand and said to himself, "... The hell happened to a professional-relationship?"

"It exploded... right after your ship exploded by that Blood Dragon Gunboat Missile... but I think it already started to stray off when you tried to fend off those Wilde pilots before then." She replied without turning her head to look.

He asks, somewhat confused, "And why did it end then?"

"I... I just don't know... well, maybe at the time I didn't know, but..."

Then she looks up at the sky, "... Over the weeks where I got to think about it... if you hadn't tried to hold those Wilde off... would it have been different...? Would... would I not have seen you... as I saw Terry all those years ago...?"

She looks at her mechanical arm, and a tear drops down her human eye "... He was a good man... one who never gave up... he..." She closes the hand tightly and continues in-between sobs, "... He worked hard for me... he never yielded... he did everything in his power to make me feel happiness again... and he did eventually succeed in making me happy... happy in a long while, and...

"... When he never came back... when I found out later he was killed in his escape pod... I almost gave up...

"I guess... to say the least, when you tried to fend those Wilde off, I saw Terry in you... he helped me escape that Outcast ambush all those years ago... he gave up everything, even his own life... for me...

"... And that's why I don't know anymore... that's why I initially never wanted to rush things... because it wouldn't be fair to treat you as I did Terry... You weren't him... you're different... You're David. Though you have your quirks and everything, you still have your moments... It'd be wrong if I compared you to him, for you both are two different people."

David was listening the whole time, and when Jaden was done he bats a sincere smile at her, "... Well... At least now I know why you've been trying so hard to give me a boner."

She couldn't help but chuckle at the remark, "... Was that what my actions looked like to you? Heh... I guess I only learned half of what Terry taught me."

"I said trying, I didn't say you succeeded." The smile turns into a grin.

Jaden grunted at the remark, "Owww... Now that certainly hurt!"

David laughs jokingly at her response, "I never said you failed either..."

And his tone gets a little serious, "... And no. I wasn't so thick as to not realize what you were doing... I just remembered that you wanted only a professional-relationship and so I wasn't going to do anything."

"Yeah... My bad on just remembering that now... I also wanted that at the start, yet... it just happened... and everything fell into place for me... as for you, you still kept going..."

Then she turns to David, "... and that's another thing I like about you... though you may not appear to be, you're also focused. You've kept at being professional for as long as you thought it was appropriate, and..."

She smiles at him, "... Just think if it were NOT a professional-relationship...?"

"Well the last time I mixed work and play I almost got blown to bits." He points out.

She gingerly giggles to herself, "Hmmm... That's also a good reason.

"So yeah... I've given you my most direct clue as could possibly be... it's up to you if you understood and act on it... or not... but whatever it may be, I just hope I don't get kicked out of the house for it... would really bring me down if I couldn't enjoy another moment of swimming pool for myself..." Then Jaden slowly continues walking back to the estate.

David scratches his chin for a moment, but he decides to just follow close after her...





"... So what's so special about me trying to hold off those Wild?" David eventually breaks the tense silence first, "I've done it before plenty of other times." He smiles and says half to himself, "It's amazing how long a transport can take to charge cruise."

"It's the act itself that's special...

"Over the course of my entire life, I've witnessed several incidents where the odds were so against us that unless a few were to stall the opponents, everyone would perish, even though they'd know... there was little chance of returning back alive...

"... and out of all of them... only 1 instance where they came back to tell the tale..."

"I wasn't doing something like that... I could have stalled them for 10 minutes easily and still retreat. My plan was to have you to get out of the way, so I could retreat back knowing they didn't have any other targets. It almost worked... Damn Gu---"

"HOW COULD I HAVE KNOWN THAT?! HOW COULD I HAVE KNOWN YOU'D BE ABLE TO SURVIVE, EH?!" She scowls at him.

David still kept his cool, "1... You know I had a very fast ship. 2... You knew I had no intentions of fighting, so I could focus on dodging only. And 3? You know I was in the LSF, and they taught us things like that."

Jaden stops in her tracks, calming a bit, but with tears dropping down, "... How could I... have known... it all went so fast, you know...? I could only rely on gut instincts at the time... in battle, you usually trust your instincts, and it's with training that they becomes decisive.

"But I... couldn't know... I didn't know... I wanted to know, but you could say emotions overuled logic..."

He shrugs his shoulders, "Well you could blame the fact we hadn't been working together all that long... in combat I mean. It's hard to work well if you don't understand your partner."





A short pause in speech... Her lips quiver a bit as she says in a hesitant tone, ".. Y... you're right... I...

"... I'm sorry, you're right. It was..." Then she bites her lips hard, "... It was foolish of me to love you. It's entirely my fault I got myself into this." She starts walking off hurriedly.

David stops walking, his face apparently stricken with disbelief, "The hell did that come from? I only said the reason as to why you didn't know I'd be fine."

Jaden turns around and looks at him frustratingly, her face really red, tears running down her cheek, "You don't have to sugar-coat it, David! You don't have to hide that I was stupid and clouded in my judgement! You don't have to hide it anymore that I was stupid to have thought you were going to die when I should've trusted your word! You don't have to hide it that I brought all of these complications upon myself! You don't have to hide it that I'm just a big, stupid, stupid ESTUPIDO! You don't... you don't... GAAH!!!" She palms and covers her face very shamefully.

But then he walks up to her, and slowly puts his arm around her shoulders, saying in a comforting voice, "... But I'm still here now, aren't I? Don't bother regretting the past, you can't chan---"

Without warning she swiftly oustretches her arms and gives him a tight embrace; she buries her face on his shoulder, and as she continues to lightly sob he could feel the tears soaking up into his flight-suit.

He is taken back by the sudden gesture, "... I... erm... You wanna go to the pool when we get back? It's been a long day for you."

She suddenly stops her sobbing, her face still covered in his shoulder, for a few more moments. Then she looks back at David, her face still red, but her tone was clearly being sly, "... You've never had a girlfriend... have you?" She tries to make a sly grin, but it comes out crooked because she still felt sore.

He points out with a grin, "Ah, you'€™re wrong there. I have had a girlfriend... Though it didn't last long."

Then he looks back at Jaden, "Trust is a hard thing to come by... And I need to be able to trust those around me."

She looks down to his feet, "... And I suppose... you don't trust me... not after I had cost you a valuable ship...?" She lets go of her hold on David, this time embracing herself, "... I'd understand if you didn't."

He smiles, "If I didn't trust you... would I have shown you my huge collection of weapons? Would have I purchased some very expensive ships for you? If I didn't trust you, why would I let you enter my life?"

She pauses at the remark, and then looks around for an answer...

However, she instead replies, "... Then... why do you trust me...? I haven't done anything that would deserve such... well, at least none that I could reasonably think of."

He thinks for a moment, but he himself turns up blank, "I... Don't know... I wish I did." He scratches his head with a slight grin.

Jaden jokingly implies, "... Soooo... We're both screwed up?" She tries to give a smile.

David laughs at the comment, "No... We're both human."

She nods her head, "... Si... Human..."

She walks for a few paces more before turning her head back at David and smiles warmly, "... So you... really do trust me...?"

He sighs, "... Not fully... No one has ever made it that far, but your close. Closer than you think."

She frowns a bit, but she nods in acknowledgement, "Si... I respect that... and forgive me once again for being so stupid as to have tried to give you my heart so readily, eh? It was unprofessional of me, and it would've been dangerous..."

She looks back up at the sky, "... especially in these troubled times."

"And impossible..." David continues in a stern, yet uncomfortable tone, "There are reasons why I don't trust people, Jaden... Some of these you may already know, but many you don't. I've had my heart broken once, and that will never happen again...

"... Thing's I've seen and experienced have taught me that trust is a far more valuable thing than most. Trust can save your live... but it can also take it..."

Jaden grips her chest very tightly, and she closes eyes as her next words come out painfully, "... I... remember... when I said those same words to Terry...

"Yet, unlike him, who was so sure of himself, I may not have the fortitude, nor the constitution to fight for such trust... and it would be pointless of me to try to prove it otherwise.

"For I get the feeling that you... may never change from that view." She lets out a long sigh before finally continuing on the path back to the Estate...

... But not before pausing for a second to finish with a statement, "... But thank you, at the very least... for having accepted me... into your life." And with that, she continues on her way...





... For a minute more, David just stands there on the path... alone... He watches on as Jaden got farther and farther from ear-shot.

When she was now too far for him to even shout out to, he whispers to himself, "... Time will tell, Jaden... Time will tell me if I am ready..."

---

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