Angel's Library

When Peppermint opens the door to the hideout, the first thing she notices is that Chai looks like he wants to die.

She’d been out helping to clear Kale’s corruption. It’s essentially her job. For now, anyway. Eventually, she’ll take over the company. Hopefully, that won’t be for a while. Peppermint isn’t sure she’s really ready for it yet. It’s a huge undertaking. So was taking down Kale and the other company heads, but…that’s different.

Today, it was mostly just meetings. Lots of interviews to get new heads of production, marketing, and finance. They had some solid candidates lined up. The issue is that it’s a whole process. They can’t just hire them. They have to figure out how to get them to the island, get them set up with living quarters, make sure they get everything explained to them properly, shown around so they don’t get lost (even with all the arrows around)…

It’s a pain in the ass.

Peppermint is exhausted. She was hoping to get back and sleep for the next 12 hours.

But Chai is on the couch, curled up and clutching his stomach. He looks uncomfortable. 808 is on the floor looking up at him. She keeps meowing.

Macaron and Korsica must still be at work. CNMN is most likely with Macaron. So that just leaves Peppermint to deal with…whatever this is.

Chai must’ve finally noticed her standing in the door, because he sits up and smiles at her. 808 hops into his lap.

“Hey, Peppermint! How’d the meetings go?”

She narrows her eyes, but plays along. “Eh. We’re getting closer to having new people hired. Shouldn’t be too much longer now…hopefully.”

“What’s going on with you?” she asks.
“Just chillin’,” is his breezy reply.
“Really? Then why were you clutching at your stomach?”
“Whaddya mean?”

Peppermint scowls at him. “ Don’t play dumb. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing! I promise!” Chai tries to soothe her.

Her scowl somehow gets angrier looking.

His smile turns strained. “My stomach just hurts. That’s all. No biggie.”

“Have you been fighting the SBR units again?”

“No, actually,” he says. “And, for your information , that only happened the other day because they asked me to fight them. So.”

She rolls her eyes.

“It just…kinda started hurting a few hours ago.”
“Huh.” Peppermint pauses to think. “Did you forget to eat?”
“Mmm, maybe. I don’t remember when I last did.”

“Alright,” she says as she pulls out her phone. “What do you want?”
“Uh…do they deliver chicken noodle soup?” he asks.
“They can deliver pretty much anything, Chai.”
“Then soup.” He yawns. “I’m gonna take a nap.”

Peppermint merely nods in acknowledgement as she orders some food for them. Once that’s done, she sits down at her desk. If she can’t rest until the food gets here, might as well work on uncovering more of those SPECTRA signals around the campus.

Every so often, Peppermint will glance over at Chai. He never fell asleep, though he’s clearly trying to. He keeps tossing and turning. The uncomfortable expression from earlier is back on his face. 808 hopped up and curled up next to him at some point. Slowly, she’s been moving towards the end of the couch, away from him.

Peppermint can’t blame her. It’s hard to rest next to someone who won’t stop moving.

She hopes that it really is just because he’s hungry. He’s had a couple of medical scares the past few weeks.

First, his player stopped functioning correctly for a bit. He kept passing out and getting hurt because of it. They had to make him a new one. It took a little while, but thankfully that got sorted. Chai even got to keep the old one.

But then, not long after, his under the hood implants finally broke down from the constant stress. That was far less terrifying, but it was still a big issue. The nice thing was that it took only about a day to fix. Then everything was back to normal.

Still. The last thing they need is Chai getting sick. Especially because he’ll act like everything’s fine. That’s the worst part.

It would be easier if he took it more seriously. Instead, he jokes around and tries to pretend everything is okay. He’ll ignore his injuries, and sometimes even hide them .

Honestly, Peppermint isn’t sure which is worse.

Korsica, Macaron, and CNMN arrive shortly after their food does. They each have their own moments of checking in with Chai, but he waves them off much like he did with Peppermint.

They eventually gave up on pestering him and settled in. If Chai doesn’t want to talk, there’s no use in trying to force him. He’s as stubborn as a mule sometimes.

With everyone in the hideout, Peppermint feels a bit better. If something goes wrong, it won’t just be up to her. More eyes to see problems, more hands to help.

After eating, she regained some energy, which she used on trying to figure out these stray SPECTRA signals. She thinks she’s got the next one nailed down. Looking at all of the data is starting to give her a headache, though. Time for a break.

Peppermint turns away from her desk with a sigh. She looks around the room to see what everyone else is up to.

Macaron is tinkering with something. CNMN is organizing the clothes hanging up on the racks in the far corner. Korsica is on her laptop, probably answering emails. Chai is lying on the couch reading one of his music books. 808 is curled up near his head.

His soup is sitting on the ground near the couch growing cold. It probably already is.

It bothers her.

Normally, Chai eats his food in a matter of seconds as soon as it’s placed in front of him. He’s like a vacuum. It was a bit unnerving at first, but they all got used to it eventually. Just another quirk of his.

Earlier, he’d been eating it at a glacial pace. Like swallowing was a chore.

At the time, she hadn’t thought much of it. She was too exhausted and caught up in her own food. Now that it’s on her mind, though, it won’t stop bugging her.

Peppermint can’t be completely sure from where she’s sitting at her desk, but it looks like only about half of it is gone.

That part is pretty par for the course. Chai may eat quickly, but he never eats much.

The problem is that it means his stomach doesn’t hurt because he’s hungry. It’s difficult to tell, but she’s pretty sure it’s still bugging him. He looks fine on the surface. There’s an underlying discomfort in his expression and the way he’s lying, though. But maybe she’s just looking for things that aren’t there.

“You good, Chai?” she calls.
He hums in response, flipping to the next page of his book.

With a sigh, Peppermint turns away. That’s about as good as she’s gonna get from him.

It’s when they all finally head to bed that the trouble really starts.

Peppermint wakes up to the sound of retching from the bathroom. So does everyone else, from the way Macaron sits up and Korsica makes a sympathetic noise.

CNMN is the first to move. “Mr. Chai, are you alright?”
The only response they get is a groan.

The others stay where they are. Peppermint is unsure what to do.

She has foggy memories of Kale being sick when they were kids, but she never helped out or anything. Mom always took care of it. And whenever she’s sick, she just...takes care of herself.

After a while, CNMN and Chai leave the bathroom. They lead him to the couch, where they help him lie back down.

“I’ll go get a bucket,” Macaron says, before he gets up to do just that.

808 hops up onto Chai, landing on his abdomen. He jolts, quickly picking her up. After taking a deep breath, he shakily sets her down higher up, over his arm’s power unit.

“Next time, throw up in the toilet, please, Mr. Chai,” CNMN says once he’s settled. “You’ll clog up the sink, which would be very bad.”

Peppermint doesn’t even want to think about having to fix and clean that.

“Sorry,” Chai mumbles. “Didn’t think…and then…”
“It is alright. You should try to rest.”

When Macaron finally gets back, a small bucket in tow, Chai seems to be asleep.

“Poor little guy,” Macaron says as he places the bucket near the couch. “Hope it was just a one time thing.”

“Me too,” Peppermint whispers.

And, of course, it wasn’t.

Chai throws up about every twenty minutes. Sometimes, he does it in the bucket. Other times, he heads for the bathroom, presumably because it isn’t just vomiting going on.

Each and every time, the others get up to help however they can. They rotate out comforting him. Only CNMN goes with him into the bathroom, though.

Peppermint is never sure what to do. Holding his hand seems to help, though. It hurts her heart seeing him like this. It hurts even more when he mumbles an apology every time.

“Sorry for keeping you up…”
“Sorry about this…”
Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry .

“Stop apologizing,” she told him at one point. “You don’t need to.”
He only murmured another one in response.

It’s exhausting. But Peppermint doesn’t think any of them would be able to sleep through this, anyways.

As the night wears on, the more exhausted and downright awful Chai looks.

At around 4 AM is when he looks his worst.

His hair is a disaster . He’s white as a sheet, his eyes almost looking hollow. And he won’t stop shaking like a leaf.

“Are you cold, Mr. Chai?” CNMN asks as they help him lie down for the thousandth time.

“N-No-No,” he stutters out. He pauses, licks his lips and swallows. “Just…tired.”

“It has been quite some time now since this began. The worst of it should be over. Which means you will be able to get some proper rest!”

Chai laughs. It’s an empty sound.

“That’d be nice.”

He throws up again at 6 AM.
2 hours of peace. 2 hours of sleep.

Peppermint isn’t sure whose turn it is. She decides it’ll just be hers.

That, apparently, was the correct call, because no one else gets up. Not even CNMN, and they don’t really have to sleep. Their exhaustion must’ve finally knocked them out cold.

She sits down on the ground next to him. She places one of her hands on the couch next to him.

At this point, Chai isn’t really throwing up. It’s mostly just dry heaving.
In Peppermint’s experience, that’s far worse than puking.

When he finally stops, it’s quiet for a while. For a moment, she thinks he fell back asleep.

But then he whispers, “Will it be over soon?”
He sounds so small. His voice almost dies halfway through the sentence.

She doesn’t want to lie. Doesn’t want to give him false hope. So Peppermint doesn’t.
“I don’t know. I hope so.”

“Sor—”
“Chai.”
Silence.

“You don’t have to apologize,” she says with a soft sigh. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Feels like it,” he mutters.
She turns her head to look at him. “What do you mean?”

He stares at her. His eyes gleam faintly in the light cast by the night light they plugged in hours ago. It was better than turning on the lights. Easier to sleep that way.

After a moment, he reaches for a water bottle on the floor. Opening it one-handed with practiced ease, he takes a few sips, before setting it back down.

“I don’t know. I feel like you’re all mad at me.”
Peppermint’s brow furrows. “Why would we be mad?”
“Because I’m keeping you up,” Chai replies with a shrug.
“Not on purpose. Your stomach is all fucked up.”
“Yeah…I guess so.”

808 nudges the side of his face. She’s been following him everywhere, never straying from his side. It’s cute. And it’s nice to know that if something happened, at least 808 would be here to wake them all up if Chai can’t.

“You should try and get some sleep,” Peppermint says.
“You too,” he says through a yawn.
“I will.”

She stays there even after he drifts off. Eventually, she falls asleep, too. It’s a horrible idea, sleeping on the ground like this—it’ll hurt like a bitch when she wakes up—but she’ll get over it.

Chai has done a lot for her. This is the least she can do for him.

 

Waking up is painful, just like Peppermint knew it would be.

The good news is that Chai seems to feel better.

They all take the day off to hang out and keep an eye on him. Just in case.

It’s spent watching movies. They watch all of their favorites. And if any of them fall asleep during one, well, it’s not a big deal. They can always just rewind it or rewatch the whole thing.

At one point, Korsica leaves to check on some security things. She comes back with a box of pizza and a gift basket.

“It’s from Roxanne,” she explains as she gives the basket to Chai.
“When was someone gonna tell me that all I had to do to get one of these was get sick?”

Peppermint rolls her eyes at that.

“You don’t have to get sick to have someone send you one. Just…I don’t know… ask .”
“But that’s so awkward!” he whines.
“It really isn’t.”

As they eat their pizza and put on some really old movie Chai likes—simply titled ‘Robots’—Peppermint finds she doesn’t mind his joking attitude for once. Maybe it’s because this isn’t some sort of injury that could turn grave fast . Or maybe it’s because she thinks she understands now.

This is another thing Chai tries to do for them. To comfort them. To make them not worry about him. And as annoying as it can be, it does work in its own right.

So if humoring him will help make him feel better, why shouldn’t she?
It’s the least Peppermint can do.