Chapter Fifty-Two - Cat Nap Wrap

"If you can't uwu with sincerity, then don't owo with infidelity!"

--Hyper Cutie Bubblechan Zoom Ranger Sparkle Girl, 2048

***

After dinner, and after my heart stopped trying to beat its way out of my chest, Lucy and I took a walk through the little park again, visiting the petting zoo off to one side of the gardens.

They had real animals here. Or animatronics realistic enough to stink and poop. Lucy made all of the appropriate cooing noises as a little goat hopped its way over to her and accepted some loose goat mix from Lucy's hand.

"This place is nice," she said as she tried to scratch the goat's head. It bobbed away, then hopped off when it saw that she had no food. "There's a lot of nice places in New Montreal that we just never got to visit."

"Yeah," I said as I kept my attention on Lucy. "There's some beautiful things here."

Lucy glanced up, then tugged a stray lock away from her face. "You're silly," she declared.

"No, you're silly," I retorted with all due consideration.

Lucy smiled, and as we continued our walk, she pressed herself into my side. I wrapped an arm around her waist, hand naturally finding its place on her hip. Lucy used that to press in even closer. It was a little cool at this end of the zoo, but we kept each other warm, even if we were only walking at the kind of pace that would make the geriatric think that we were going too slow.

Lucy had brushed off her marriage joke earlier, and it was all forgotten by the time we got to dessert. Well, maybe she'd forgotten it. It was at the forefront of my mind at the moment, even if I was trying to push the thought away.

It... it would happen, eventually. Probably.

I was better at facing hordes of enemies than that kind of problem.

"Should we go home?" Lucy asked as we started to come full circle around the zoo. We weren't too far from the entrance, and I wasn't feeling nearly as bloated now as I had felt just after eating.

"Yeah, I guess so," I said.

"Worried?" Lucy asked.

"Hmm? About what?"

"I don't know. You've been taking some time off, even if it was all rather busy. I think it was good for you," Lucy said. "You don't seem as stressed."

"I don't feel as stressed," I admitted. "But it also feels like there's a ton of stuff that's going to happen soon. The more I try to get things fixed, the deeper I get involved, the more I realize that the problems that caused the problems that caused the problems I want to fix are more complicated than I imagined."

Lucy nodded. "It's not your fault. Or even any one person's fault."

"No, I think a lot of my problems are generational. People were allowed to get away with shit fifty years ago, and now that's hurting us here, today. It's all very... messy. I'm surprised that no one's tried to fix it by wiping the slate clean."

"I don't know. Sounds like you'd need to really start over from scratch for that," Lucy said.

"Bit of a depressing end to the evening," I said while suppressing a yawn. "Sorry."

Lucy pressed herself into me. "No, it's okay. I guess your vacation will be ending soon?"

"I guess so," I said.

There was a small lobby space before entering the zoo. A few kiosks, the booth to buy tickets, some vending machines and the elevators leading to the parking space below. There were also a couple of televisions mounted to the walls. Some were playing loud ads on loop, but one was turned into a 24/7 News channel.

It was showing some PMCs from above, firing into a small horde of lower-tiered models rushing towards their emplacement.

The banner at the bottom said that it was live, and taking place just outside of New Montreal.

It was strange how unaffected the people here were.

There were other couples. A few workers. Some people that looked like they'd just finished their shifts and were moving by. They'd glance at the screen with the news and pay it as much attention as the ads playing next to it.

The world was ending, and it was as noteworthy as the newest hard-on pill or the freshest toothpaste recommended by 11 out of 10 dentists.

I couldn't even be angry. Not so long ago I would have been a lot more concerned with keeping me and mine fed than I would have been about the impending tide of hungry aliens. One was an issue I needed to address now. The other was something terrible that, if it happened, there was nothing I could do about.

These people had their own shit going on. The people displaced by the aliens, those that had lost family, they'd be really concerned. So were those fighting on the front lines. But the rest of us? Life went on.

The vacation I'd taken was a nice way of stepping back from the bigger picture and fixing the little-picture stuff that bothered me.

But that didn't mean that I could sit back forever.

There was a weight of responsibility that came with being a samurai, and it was one that was pressing on me now. "I think I'm gonna be heading out tomorrow," I said.

"In the morning?" Lucy asked.

"Well, whenever I happen to wake up. It looks like things around the city are getting spicey. Besides, I think I could use a few more points, right?"

Lucy locked eyes with me for a good long while, almost as if she was seeing if I was serious. Then she nodded. "Okay. As long as you stay as safe as you can manage, then I think it's okay that you head out. Will you be doing another thing like Burlington?"

"Hmm, no, I think I'll be staying closer to home," I said. "There's something nice about sleeping in my own bed, you know?"

"Oh, I think I do," Lucy purred.

I grinned, then leaned into the side to press a kiss onto the top of her head. I wasn't sure she felt it through her bushy hair, but that didn't matter.

We took a taxi back home, and maybe got a little handsy on the way back, at least until the taxi's rudimentary AI warned us that by taking this taxi, we waived any rights to footage taken of us having fun in the back. Then it tried to sell us on a subscription to Feisty Taxi, which... no.

The moment the car landed, we stumbled out of it and into the pouring evening rain. It was cold, and some of it immediately found its way past the collar of my coat. Still, it was kind of refreshing, and we both laughed as I tried to shield Lucy from the rain while running towards the front door.

"So," Lucy said as she pressed a rain-wet kiss against my lips. "Ready for second dessert?"

Someone cleared their throat, and I looked up to find Junior standing by the entrance, arms crossed and looking unimpressed. "Hey," I said.

"Hey," she replied. "Before you two start your little rabbits-in-heat thing, you have a visitor."

"Oh... shit. Wait, who is it?" I asked.

"Delilah, from downstairs," Junior said, her posture relaxing, though she was looking at me with suspicion. "Is she actually your friend?"

"Uh, yeah? Why wouldn't she be?"

"Because Delilah speaks and acts like someone who has their shit together," Junior said. "I kinda figured that people like that would have a natural aversion to our sort."

Lucy laughed. "Delilah's good people," she said before pulling away from me and adjusting her outfit. "I'll go grab some drinks. You go chat with your friend."

I watched her leave, then smacked my cheeks to help myself refocus. Delilah wasn't the sort to interrupt things just-because.

I found her in the living room, sitting on the edge of a couch and listening to Nose prattle on about... something that he'd hyper fixated on. "Oi, brat, leave Delilah alone for a bit," I said as I patted him on the head.

He gave me the finger, then ran off, leaving us more or less alone in the busiest room of the house. "Hello," she said.

"Hey. So, what's up?"

"The wall was breached," she said in a way that had a shiver running down my spine. "We've sealed it, killed the antithesis that made it through, but with so many PMCs moving to other cities, we're going to see more trouble. That, and the antithesis are starting to act smarter."

"Ah," I said. "Well, fuck, I guess vacation time really is over."

***