The Search for a Weapon Partner (Finished)

Jeremy's mischievous smile turned into a look a suspicion for a brief moment, before turning back. "Is that so? Great. Can't wait to get back in the game!" He chuckled, but his reaction could not have been farther from what he was thinking. Why is she avoiding the subject of the band? It was very obvious she doesn't want me knowing what it is... Should I play along? "Well I'm glad it's healing faster than mine did. It took me a month to recover! Of course we were broke, and couldn't afford a lot of the medicine they requested, and I was in a lot more pain... But it's good you're recovering quickly! I've got one question though..." Jeremy's calm demeanour was suddenly replaced by a stern look and nearly emotionless face. "Where the hell did you get the band?"

"I don't doubt that you did feel a lot of pain..." Shizu's voice trailed off as she grabbed the prosthetic arm and let a brief sigh escape. She gave it her best shot for Jeremy to forget about it, but she couldn't bring herself to lie about it on top of all the rest of the things that were going on. "Well..." the meister started and cleared her throat before resuming. "First, promise me you won't do anything rash...."

Jeremy lowered his head and closed his eyes, "That is never a good sign..." He sighed, looking up at the ceiling with his eyes still closed. "Bloody fine. I promise I won't freak out or anything. I won't even care if it was bloody Martyn." Jeremy began to calm himself down and relax, leaning back into the chair, ready for her answer. "I swear I won't do anything rash, okay? I'm calm, relaxed and I doubt anything could piss me off again. Okay. Shoot. Where did you get the band?" He kept his eyes closed, not wanting to see his Meisters face as she was telling him. He wouldn't want to see anything he didn't have to in her expressions.

"Okay here goes...." she started and took an extremely large breath. "Suhas gave me the band, I'm still not 100% sure what its purpose in because you kinda came in and sent him away while he was explaining it..." Shizu replied in one very quickly spoken sentence. As soon as she finished, she flinched in fear that something was about to go down like he was laying the law or something.

Every muscle in Jeremy's body tensed. He took a deep, unsteady breath and exhaled slowly. "I'm not angry. I'm not. I'm not mad, angry, or upset. I'm just..." Jeremy took a few moments to find the proper words to say, but he couldn't find them. "I. Am not. Mad." He tried to convince himself. Fearing he would do something he would regret, he excused himself from the room. "I'll be back momentarily." He said as he closed the door. This is when he let the rage swell over him and he shouted in anger, punching a wall with his mechanical arm. Several clockwork pieces fell from his forearm at the punch, but he didn't stop. He continued to shout and punch the wall until his knuckles began to bleed and his mechanical hand was entirely destroyed.

The meister didn't feel any better about telling Jeremy that it was the sorcerer that gave her the band... In fact if anything she felt worse. When he had excused himself from the room, Shizu tension was started to fade into a slight discomfort, but when she heard the banging and crunching of clockwork pieces she instantly jumped up nearly ten feet and darted out of the door. "What are you doing?!" she screeched as her brows furrowed.

Jeremy looked at her, finding it difficult to contain any anger at all. "What am I doing?! What are you doing?! You should know that anything related to that sorcerer is dangerous! You don't talk to him, you don't associate with him, and you definitely don't accept gifts from him!" Jeremy would have been pointing at her if he still had his mechanical hand. He turned his back on his meister, unwilling to see her face. The regular hand bled slowly, but he was too angry to feel the pain right now. "I just... Don't want him to hurt you..." He spoke, his voice significantly quieter.

Shizu lifted her hand in protest but slowly let it drop as her eyes cast to the white-tiled floor. "I... I'm sorry. I didn't know what he was doing either and I just... couldn't do anything..." she replied and closed her eyes tightly to prevent them from watering any more than they already had been. "I couldn't do anything... because I was afraid."

Suddenly, blood wasn't the only thing dripping to the floor. He held his hand up to his face to find tears streaming down his cheeks. I'm... Crying? I'm not meant to be crying, I'm supposed to be... Oh hell. He let out a quiet sob before clutching his head in his hands to cover the sounds. "I'm sorry... I just thought that..." Jeremy sobbed again, this time audible enough for his meister to hear. Before Shizu could react to anything he spun around and embraced her. "Just promise me... Never talk to him again... please." Jeremy begged of the girl.

Shizu nodded violently and almost squeezed the life out of the weapon. "I.... I p-promise.'' She tried to reply, but the crying made it hard to even think clearly let alone speak. "We're a wreck, y'know?" Shizu added after a moment, a bitter chuckle escaped her lips as she sniffled. But it kinda feels good... just to let it out. she shut her eyes tightly and clenched her teeth.

Despite himself, Jeremy chuckled. "Love, you have no idea..." He continued to hold back as many years as possible, refusing to show all his emotions. He eventually gave up and tears rolled down his face at a much faster rate. He was so consumed in his emotions he didn't notice one of the hospital staff staring at them, looking very concerned for what had possibly happened. "Are you two okay out here?" The staff member asked them, holding a clipboard in one hand and a coffee in the other.

Shizu looked to the staff and replied,"Yeah we're just having a moment." She wiped her tears away with her wrist and took a deep, yet choppy, breath. "Let's just... try and move en on from this." The meister spoke directly to Jeremy, with a slim smile and rosy cheeks. Her ey3s were red from crying as an was her nose.

Jeremy smiled weakly, wiping tears away from his eyes and reopening the door to the room. "Now that's an idea I can get behind. Come one, let's get you back to your room." Well, I hope that we've got that settled... Only thing left is to hunt down the rodent. He took his Meisters hand and led her back into her room, some of the blood from his knuckles trickling onto the girls hand. "Oh, Uuh, sorry about that..." He quickly withdrew his hand, hoping his meister wouldn't be repulsed by his injury or wild act of anger.

The meister looked at her hand and subtly wiped off the weapon's blood that had rubbed off as he guided her to her room. "It's, uh.... It's fine." she reassured and chuckled nervously. "We should probably get that bandaged up, right?" Shizu asked while looking up at him, her eyes were a lot less puffy now but they still showed exhaustion from the day's events. THough she was quickly healing, she didn't have all her stamina back.

Jeremy shook his head, "No, no, no. I've got to get it bandaged up. You have to get some rest! You have a new limb to adapt to, and it usually takes a while to do so." He wiped the remainders of the tears out of his eyes and led her to the bed, forcing her to lay down. "Relax, okay? I've got everything sorted out. Calm down, get some rest, and we'll be collecting souls again before you know it. But for now..." Taking one of the caramels and popping it in her mouth, the weapon tucked in his meister. "I've got everything under control."

"I hate being helpless..." the meister muttered and chewed on the caramel with a displeased expression. "You have this covered?..." she asked with a raised eyebrow and crossed her arms, not really convinced that the weapon had this under control. I really want to get back in the field asap... Shizu thought and looked at the ceiling, studying the boards and counting the panels out of boredom.

Jeremy leaned over her slightly. "Entirely. Come on, have some faith in your weapon." The boy smiled, something seemingly inappropriate from all that has happened. Throwing himself down on the usual chair next to her bed. "You trust me, right? I would understand if you don't anymore, but just remember..." He took a deep breath and looked her in the eyes. "You can trust me. I've got everything under control, honest!" He nervously tried to spin a few gears on his arm, but somehow failed when he found that they weren't even there anymore.

"Stop being so dramatic." Shizu replied and nudged him with her fist. "If you weren't so dramatic than we'd have one less thing to be concerned about." She teased and sat up, kneeling on her knees. A grin shone on her face as she spoke, Jeremy was a lot more entertaining than the nurses were, so she was secretly glad he was staying so long.

Jeremy suddenly stood up and put his hands on his hips, looking off into the distance dramatically. "Girl, I'll be dramatic whenever I damn well feel like it." He stood there for a few moments. "Aaaand roll end credits." He burst into laughter and tried to drop back onto the chair, but he missed the chair and just collapsed in the floor, making him laugh even more.

Shizu was so on shocked by his sudden, yet hilarious, comment that she nearly spat out her caramel from a sudden outburst of pure laughter. The him falling of the floor only intensified the laughing-fest. "You're so weird!" She finally responded and held her stomach from laughing so intensely.

"You're telling me?!" Jeremy half-shouted, still on the floor. He began to calm down and slowly lifted himself onto the chair. The boy yelped out in pain when he remembered the wound on his hand, stopping his laughter. Finally crawling entirely into the chair, he held his reopened wound to his chest, staining his waist coat with blood. "Ah, bloody hell, that hurt!" He took a tissue from the box next to Shizu's bed and covered the wound on his hand. The weapon looked down at his waist coat with frustration. "Bloody hell... Now it's singed and blood stained!"

"Maybe we'll need a wardrobe change once we get out of this place...?" She thought aloud and sighed. "I don't think that a tissue will be adequate enough for your little injury there, sir." The meister advised, kinda pointing out the obvious. With one hand raised she suggested the following,"I think you should check in for a checkup. We'll both have to be in top-notch shape ifwe want to get back into the swing on things..."

Jeremy shook his head. "Nah, I'll be fine. I can take care if myself. Just watch!" He walked over to a small cabinet and pulled out a roll if bandages and proceeded to wrap it around his injured hand mainly using his teeth. He still only has one hand, after all. "Thee? I don' need help from the hoshpital!" He released the bandages from his mouth and held up his hand. "Perfect. I'll be fine if I can do this one handed." As he was speaking, the bandage slowly unraveled onto the floor. He only noticed once he was finished. Jeremy bent down to pick it up. "Ah, bloody hell. Okay, maybe I do need a bit if help. Mind patching me up?" The weapon held the bandages out to his meister.

Shizu looked at the bandages and scoffed while taking a hold of them. "Fine, but only because we're friends." With delicate fingers the meister carefully wrapped the wound just tight enough to stay in but loose enough to not cut off any circulation. "So far so good. By the way I'm thinking about using one of the favors you owe me." The meister spoke without taking her eyes off of his wounds.

The weapons face paled in the subtlest way at his Meisters comment. "B-be careful down there! I don't want you accidentally gouging your thumb into it." The boy began to remember what he had said just one day before. "When you finally decide to cash it in, I'll have to do anything you want for a whole week!" He subconsciously shuddered at what horrific act this girl would make him do. What if she makes me do the South American bullet ant thing?! Oh crap, what did I get myself into... Jeremy cleared his throat before speaking. "So, then... W-what would you like me to do...?"