Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

”Hmm...it looks like it’s going to be another beautiful day today.”

Ion was talking to herself while standing outside of her house, putting up some laundry to dry. The weather was pleasant, blue sky filled with some white puffy clouds and a slight breeze gently blowing over the islands.

Life had been peaceful in her village ever since the Naga Empire’s reign had ended. Ion’s house was located on a hill, in a very open spot where everything in the area could be observed easily. The house had been built only recently, and back when Naga was still around, there was no way anyone in the village would built their home in such a open place. The constant fear of the attacks from Naga’s machines...those times were finally in the past.

Ion smiled at the thought when she looked down from the hill to see the entire village below her. She could see one of the R-Series units —Orthos— following someone while carrying something for them. After the war had ended, Ion had found and fixed every R-Series robot, and they had started to live in Garuda — in peace. Humans were still cautious of the robots, as they used to not too long ago bring terror and destruction all around Garuda. But as the remaining robots spent most of their time trying to help people and connect with them, some had started to trust them, and this trust was slowly spreading everywhere. Surely in time the fear of the machines would completely fade away, Ion thought to herself.

Ion had finished putting up the laundry, and she turned around to go back inside. Up until recently she had lived with her grandfather, but she was already old enough to live on her own, so she had built a place (with the help of everyone in the village) to live in. The house she lived in was fairly big for a single person, but she really needed the room with all the mechanical parts and contraptions she came up with. Also, she had needed room for…

”Heeey! Ion!”

...Well, speaking of.

Ion turned around to greet the robot who had just landed next to her, giving her a tiny smile.

”Rodea! Good morning!”

”It’s almost afternoon” Rodea quipped back, ”but good morning!”

Ion blinked in surprise when she realised what time it was. Ever since Rodea had moved in with her (she was not only his friend but also a mechanic, and he needed a place to live in, so the arrangement was completely logical for both of them), he usually got up very early, before even Ion woke up, and left for a morning flight that could last for hours. During those flights he also often met someone in the village he ended up spending some time with, and an entire day could pass by without Ion seeing Rodea until he returned in the evening.

”Right...I’m actually surprised to see you back so soon, Rodea.”

”Well, yeah” Rodea said, scratching the back of his head and looking away sheepishly, ”Everyone in the village seemed busy today, and I’ve already explored every part of nearby islands I can reach with my flight capacity, so...”

”Your flight capacity?” Ion wondered aloud.

Rodea nodded.

”Yes...you know, my flight range, while fairly large, is still limited” Rodea said, crossing his arms and swinging his tail around himself.

Right, Ion thought. During their travels in Garuda while trying to stop the Naga Empire, there had been many times when something was too far away for Rodea to reach. There was always something that had helped him to get to around, but Ion couldn’t help but think...What if someday he gets in a situation where he can’t fly as far as needed? What then?

Ion, completely lost in her thoughts, stared at Rodea’s tail. Right. The mechanic had tinkered around with every R-Series robot by now, and knew enough about them that their tails — to be precise, the part at the end of their tails — was the part that granted them the ability to fly (well, expect for Valghis, but he was a special case). Those tails were built with a limited flight range, but what if...

”Ion? Is something the matter?”

Ion was snapped out of her thoughts by Rodea’s voice. She noticed him looking at her, with slight worry in his face.

”Oh, sorry...were you saying something, Rodea?”

Rodea swayed back a bit, his expression changing to somewhat serious as he crossed is arms.

”I was asking what are you up to today. Since I got nothing else to do…”

”Right! Actually…” Ion said, grabbing Rodea’s hand, and pulling him to follow her inside her house, ”I just had an idea, and I need your help with it.”

———————

”...Ion?”

”Yeah?”

Rodea was sitting in Ion’s room where she build all of her...well, everything. The room was very messy, with tools, mechanical parts and all kinds of machines scattered everywhere. It was almost a miracle that Rodea had found a open spot to sit on (he wasn’t even sure what he was sitting on) while Ion was at her desk, working on some sort of blueprints and looking at mechanical parts.

”When are you going to tell me what this idea of yours is?”

”Haha, not yet! It’s a surprise!” she giggled back at the robot, who just pouted. She’d been like that the entire time since he came back, and it honestly started to bother him. Usually Ion was so open about the things she was building that it was unusual for her to keep secrets from him.

Besides, Rodea still had no idea what Ion had meant when she said she needed his help for this...idea she apparently had. The only thing the robot could tell was that the mechanic occasionally stopped working to stare at him when she thought he didn’t notice (he did, but acted like he didn’t). It was really weird, almost freaking him out, but he tried to ignore it.

It had been many hours, and it was already dark outside. The only source of light was an old lamp sitting on Ion’s desk, luminating the dark room in a soft, yellow glow.

Rodea had spent his time reading some books he’d found in the village. After spending 1,000 years shut down (twice), the world had changed a lot, and there were many things to learn and see. The current book in his hand was about the wildlife in Garuda. While he was a machine, Rodea did possess a heart, and he was very empathic towards all the life in this land he had swore to protect. But maybe most of all, he had swore to protect Ion...who right now was acting weird and secretive about what she was working on, which did not ease Rodea’s worries.

(For someone he was so devoted to, she really drove him crazy sometimes.)

Rodea put down the book he was reading, and looked at the clock on the wall. Oh. He hadn’t even realised how late it was.

While a machine, Rodea did not need sleep per se, but he (and others in R-Series) did have a sleep mode which he activated to preserve and regenerate his energy. He usually did that at night, as humans (usually) slept at night as well. And if Rodea knew anything about humans, it’s that they really needed sleep to stay alive and keep going.

Which is why Rodea was so alarmed to see it was very, very late, and Ion was still up, working on...whatever she was working on.

”Ion.”

”…”

”...Hey, Ion!”

”Oh, sorry!” Ion exclaimed, who clearly had been deep in thought, ”what is it, Rodea?”

”It’s late. You should go to sleep already” Rodea said, getting up while looking serious.

”Oh, what?” Ion looked at the clock on her wall and jumped from the surprise, ”Ah, I didn’t even realise it was that late…”

”Yes, it is late, and you need sleep” the robot demanded while crossing his arms, ”I don’t know what you’re working on, but remember the last time you built something without having enough sleep?”

Ion giggled at the memory, and Rodea grimaced. Usually when Ion did rush job, he was the one to suffer from it. The girl stopped from laughing when she noticed that Rodea kept staring at her, clearly very upset.

”Okay, okay, I get it. I’ll call it a day, then” she said, getting up while stretching a bit.

When Ion walked away from her desk, Rodea tried to peek in to see what her blueprints were about…

”Whoops! Sorry, no peeking!” Ion said while snatching the papers away from Rodea, who just gave her a disapproving look. ”Don’t wanna ruin the surprise, do you?”

The robot just turned away, pouting. ”Hmph.”

”Well, anyway” Ion chirped, ”Good night, Rodea!”

”...Good night, Ion.”

And as Ion turned the lamp off and the room turned dark, the silence fell in the house. But before Ion fell asleep, the cogs in her head were still turning around. She was excited.

Yes...I am sure Rodea will love it once it’s done. I’m sure of it.

Chapter Text

”Rodea!”

Rodea halted his movement mid-air as he heard a familiar voice calling him from below. He was just flying over the village as he looked down, seeing Ion on the path leading down from her house, waving at him excitedly with one arm, as she was carrying something with her other.

The robot changed his flying direction towards the girl, landing just a bit away from her as she quickly walked down the path to meet him.

”Did you need something, Ion?”

”Actually…!” Ion started, almost hopping from the excitement, ”I have something for you.”

Rodea raised a brow, and glanced down at Ion’s other arm that was holding something. It was something wrapped in a piece of cloth.

”I assume it’s what you’re holding?” Rodea said, putting his hand to his chin.

”Yes!” Ion raised the wrapped object, handing it to Rodea, ”Here you go!”

Rodea stared at the package, quickly looked at Ion (who only smiled sweetly back) and looked at the package again.

”Thank you, I guess” he said as he grabbed the object, weighting it in his hands. Not too heavy, he thought as he gingerly started to remove the cloth around the object, and…

It was blue, or more like teal. It looked almost like a part of a plane. It actually looked a lot like Rodea’s own tail that allowed him to fly.

Rodea looked at the object for a moment, and then looked at Ion. She was just smiling while bouncing on her feet.

”Ion...what is this?”

”It’s your new tail! Are you surprised? Do you like it?”

Rodea just stood there silently, blinking in confusion. He slowly glanced over his shoulder to look at his tail, and then turned back to Ion. She just kept smiling at him, while the robot looked at her with a confused expression on his face.

”But Ion...my tail is perfectly fine. You even saw me fly just now. I don’t need a new one.”

”Well, you see...you told me that your flight range is limited. And I thought” Ion said while clapping her hands together, ”that maybe it’d be good if you could fly more freely. So...I built a new tail for you that allows you to fly longer distances than before!”

Rodea was at the loss of words again. Right. He did remember the discussion he had with Ion about his limited flight range, that was about a week ago now. He didn’t think much of it back then, but now that he thought about it, immediately after that she had said she wanted to built him something. So that was it, then.

Rodea really didn’t know how to feel about this. The flying ability he had was obviously very important to him, and he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous about the thought of someone tinkering with that. Though, Ion had tinkered with him (without his consent, even) before, and everything she’d built on him had worked just fine. Thinking this, Rodea looked at his right arm. Yes. It might look shabby, but it was a good and very strong arm he trusted because Ion had built it with her gut instinct.

He just needed to trust her gut instinct again.

”Well...I guess it won’t hurt to give it a try” Rodea said carefully. Ion looked like she had hold her breath as she inhaled sharply, and almost jumped on Rodea from joy.

”Yes! Just hold on a minute” she said, grabbing some tools from the purse on her belt, ”I’ll install it on you right away!”

She took the new tail from Rodea’s hands, and kneeled behind him, starting to remove the tip of his current tail. The robot just looked away, scanning the nearby area. He was glad there was no one in sight, specially any of the other units from R-Series. Rodea felt so vulnerable right now, with Ion tinkering with his most precious ability in an open place like this, and he felt like he would die from the embarrassment if anyone saw him like this now.

After what felt like an eternity (and luckily no other robots flying by) Rodea heard an audible click while feeling something different on his tail, and Ion stood up.

”There, it’s done!”

Rodea spun around, trying to get a look at the new part installed to the tip of his tail. He raised it in the air, waving it a bit with an unsure look on his face.

”...Well? How does it feel?”

”Hmm…” Rodea just hummed, swinging the tail around as he was trying to get a feel of it, ”Hard to say yet.”

”In that case, why not take it for a spin? How about…” Ion looked around, pondering, and then her face lit up, ”How about you try flying to my house?”

Ion pointed towards the house standing on top of the hill, and Rodea looked up. Easy enough, he thought to himself. The house was within his usual flight range, so he would reach that pretty easily. His legs tensed as he prepared, and before Ion even realised it, he had launched himself in the air with a force that kicked up some dust from the ground. The power of the jump surprised Rodea, and he flew towards the house at greater speed than he probably had flown ever before...

CRASH

Before Ion could even react, she heard a loud crash. Rodea had crashed through a window.

”Rodea!”

The girl sprinted up the hill, towards the house. When she arrived, there was shards of glass scattered on the grass outside the broken window. Ion almost didn’t dare to look inside. She stopped for a moment to catch her breath before approaching the scene.

”Rodea…!” Ion called, still panting a bit from the run, ”Are you okay?!”

”DO YOU THINK I’M OKAY?!” a voice Ion knew all too well shrieked from indoors, peaking so high it probably nearly broke the robot’s voice box.

Yeah, he’s fine, the mechanic thought as she went to the door, and as she opened it she carefully peeked inside.

Everything was a mess. Well, messier than usual. Obviously there was shards of glass everywhere, and in middle of the mess was Rodea himself, trying to get up from the pile of mechanical parts he had crashed into. Ion stepped inside, walking next to the fallen robot, seeing that he couldn’t get up because he kept losing his grip on everything he tried to lean on to (he was in a pile of loose mechanical parts, after all). After noticing Ion next to him, he seemed completely defeated as he stopped trying to get up, and just looked up at her with an annoyed look.

Ion giggled at the sight and offered him her hand, and the robot took it while muttering something, very clearly upset. She pulled him up, and after making sure Rodea was steady on his feet, she turned around to gaze at the mess.

”Oh dear...what a mess. This is going to take some time to clean up. I hope nothing is broken.”

Rodea almost visibly flinched, and stared angrily at Ion.

”You’re more worried about this mess of yours? What about me?!” he yelled while waving his arms, ”Don’t you care if I broke in that crash?!”

”Well, considering all the racket you’re making, you seem just fine to me” she laughed, ”And I know probably more than anyone else that a little crash like that wont break you. No, there’d need to be a huge explosion at least to even scratch you...”

Ion stopped as she noticed Rodea’s face that had ”hurt” written all over it, and she regretted her words. Rodea could be sometimes quite sensitive, she thought. Forcing herself not to smile and be more serious, she turned to him and asked ”But seriously, are you alright? Nothing broken, I hope?”

Rodea dusted his left shoulder, looking away from her, ”...Yeah, I’m okay, thanks for asking.”

”I’m glad” Ion said, smiling a little, ”I’d never forgive myself if you actually got hurt from something I made.”

A silent ”uhhuh” was all Rodea could muster out of himself while trying to hide his face from Ion as he seemed to blush a little (who even thought to build him that function?). The mechanic kneeled down to the mess, starting to pick up shards of glass.

”I guess we’d better clean this up, right?” Ion said.

”Wait...what about my tail? You can’t just leave it like this!” Rodea’s voice pitched up again as he remembered what caused all of this, as he dramatically pointed at the new tail he had, ”I can’t control this thing at all, which is why I crashed in the first place!”

”Oh yeah…” the mechanic said absentmindedly, ”I probably added too much ”oomph” to the tail, and ignored how well it would control. Oh well.”

””Oh well”? Why are you saying it like it’s not a big deal?!” the robot shrieked, his pitch raising a few octaves again, ”I can’t fly like this!”

”Please calm down, Rodea” Ion asked gently while waving her hands, ”We’ll clean up this mess together, and then I’ll install your old tail back. Deal?”

The robot only grubmled as he kneeled down next to Ion and started picking up shards of glass from the floor.

———————

”...Rodea?”

”…”

”You’re still angry, are you?”

”Hmph.”

”Rodea, please, talk to me.” Ion begged.

Rodea was sitting in the corner of Ion’s room, his back turned to her while he seemed to read a book. It was late, probably past the usual bedtime of all good children (not saying that Ion and Rodea were bad, but…). After they had cleaned up the mess from Rodea’s crash, and after Ion had removed his new tail and put the old one back in, the mechanic had resumed working while Rodea had just flown away the instant his old tail was installed back. He hadn’t returned for many hours, making Ion very worried, and he had came back after it was almost dark outside.

And ever since he returned, he had barely said a word to Ion.

Ion sighed and spun around on her chair, facing the sulking robot in the corner. She sat up straight, holding her hands on her knees.

”Rodea...I told you that I’m sorry about what happened today. I’m making sure it wont happen next time, okay?”

”There wont be a next time” Rodea quietly responded (finally). He was still facing away from her, so she couldn’t see his expression.

”Please, Rodea” Ion said, almost pleading, ”It was just a slight oversight on my part. I’ll make sure to fix the new tail, and…”

”I don’t want a new tail. The old one is good enough.”

”Rodea…”

Silence fell between them, as Rodea seemingly continued read the book in his hand. He flipped a page in the book while Ion still sat by her desk, unable to continue working. She’d hardly ever seen Rodea this upset, and it made her upset too.

There was a pit in her stomach, but she decided to ignore it and just say it.

”Hey, Rodea?”

”…”

”Do you know why I wanted to build you a new tail?”

”...hm?”

Well, at least he responded, the mechanic thought.

”I was just thinking...when we were traveling and trying to stop Naga, during those travels there were times when something was too far away for you to reach” she said, inhaled, and continued, ”And while we always found a way to proceed, I can’t help but think...what if someday, somewhere, you got stuck in a situation where you just can’t fly far enough? What then?”

”…”

”And I also thought...what good is a flying ability that is so limited, anyway? Birds in the sky can ride long distances with the wind, but you’d be stuck if something wasn’t close enough for you to reach.”

Ion noticed that Rodea had put down the book he was reading, but he didn’t say anything yet, and kept looking away from her. Trying to act like she hadn’t noticed, Ion continued:

”I want to give you wings, or well, a tail that allows you to ride the wind like the birds do...so you can fly as far as you’d like. Or something like that” Ion said sheepishly and added, ”That’s what my gut instinct says, at least.”

As Ion stopped talking, the room felt eerily quiet again. She felt almost embarrassed for just pouring out the contents of her heart like that, leaving them all open to be judged. But she knew Rodea wouldn’t judge her. He wasn’t like that. She trusted their bond.

The mechanic had turned around to face her desk, trying to start working again, but she still could feel the pit in her stomach. As she tried to take a deep breath to calm herself down, she suddently felt a touch on her shoulder.

”Hey, Ion.”

She had been so nervous that she hadn’t even heard Rodea getting up and walking next to her.

”Huh?”

”It’s late again. You should stop working and get some sleep.”

And just like that, all the nervousness was gone.

”Yeah...I probably should. Thanks, Rodea.”

Chapter Text

”Yaaawnnn…”

Ion yawned loudly as she got up. It was morning, and she could see the rays of sun shining through her window, lighting up the dust particles floating around the room. It was so bright outside already, how late had she slept?

As the girl got up and started to move around…

”Morning, Ion!”

Ion almost tripped from the surprise. She had been very sleepy just a second ago, but now she felt wide awake, as she turned around to see…

”Rodea?”

There he was, the man made of metal himself, sitting by the window. The window that was broken. The window that was broken because Rodea had crashed through it just yesterday.

Right. That had happened. Huh.

The cogs inside Ion’s head started to move around fast at the realisation. First, Rodea was there. Usually he’d get up before Ion woke up and spent his entire day flying around the village and nearby islands, and only came back by the evening.

Second, he looked fairly happy to see Ion awake. The girl still remembered how upset he’d been just last night, even though by the end of it they sort of had made up, but still…

”Uh...morning, Rodea” Ion started, little unsure, ”Aren’t you going to go out like you usually do?”

”Well, uh…”

Ion was surprised again by seeing Rodea being also unsure what to say, as he usually was so bold about things. The robot looked over Ion, staring at something behind her. Curious, she turned her head around. She saw her desk. On that desk was sitting the tail Ion had built for Rodea.

Ion turned back to Rodea, whose eyes met hers. His eyes looked determined.

”I just wanted to check on what you were up to today.”

”Huh? Oh, w-well…” Ion stuttered, ”I was thinking about going to see grandpa, and then maybe taking a walk around the village…”

Ion stopped for a moment to think, putting her hand to her chin, and continued: ”And maybe I’ll build something later. I don’t know yet.”

Rodea nodded. ”...And what about my new tail?”

”...Huh?”

”You said you were going to fix it...right?”

”But I thought...you said you didn’t want it.”

Rodea looked slightly embarrassed, and looked out of the window: ”I...I trust your gut instinct. No, I trust our bond”, he emphasised the last two words while putting his fist on his chest, ”If it’s something you built, I want to at least try it. So once you fix it…”

”...you’ll try it again?”

”Yes.”

Ion smiled at Rodea, who tried to avoid an eye contact with her.

”Alright. Once you come back, let’s build it together, okay?”

Rodea smiled. His eyes met Ion’s again, and they seemed to shine in the morning sun.

”It’s a promise.”

And with that, he jumped out of the window and took off.

———————

And so they resumed to their normal daily lives. Well, mostly normal. As normal as you can have with some flying robots around.

A few days passed by normally without any bigger incidents. Ion would wake up in the morning (and as per usual, not seeing Rodea until much later) and do her regular daily routines, tinkering around with some machines and sometimes going out and walk around the village, occasionally stopping by to talk with anyone she happened to pass by. During those walks she met some of the other R-Series robots, and she used the opportunity to ask them if they also wanted to enhance their flying abilities. Orthos and Kelvis just straight up refused, seemingly having no interest with someone tinkering with their tails. The reaction Ion got from Valghis was a little hard to read, but it also seemed like he was fine with his current flight capacity (then again, Ion wasn’t even sure what was the source of his flying ability). Only Rylus seemed to consider her offer for a bit, as out of the R-Series (aside from Rodea) he seemed to respect her abilities as a mechanic the most. But then he had just turned around, waving his hand smugly at her saying ”This one does not need anything like that” and he flew off.

And every day, by the time the sun had started to set, Rodea returned, and so he and Ion started working together. They would stay up in Ion’s room hours after it had gotten dark outside, as the mechanic kept working on improving the new tail she’d built for Rodea, and he was there to help her (by ”help” he was mostly just sitting there, letting her examine his current tail to learn how it worked and understand it better). Ion was very determined to make this the best tail there ever was, allowing Rodea soar to the skies in a way he never had before.

———————

And so a week passed by.

That morning when Rodea’s sleep mode ended and he woke up, he was surprised to see that Ion was already up, working on something at her desk. Rodea looked out of the window. It was still fairly dark outside, and he barely could make out of the outlines of nearby trees standing outside the house. There was still time until the sun would rise. Rodea got up, walking up to Ion, wondering how long she’d been up (or even worse, if she even had slept at all that night).

”...Ion?”

”Oh! Good morning, Rodea!” she cheerily chirped to him as she turned around to face him with a huge smile on her face, ”I was just waiting for you to wake up.”

Before Rodea could respond, Ion got up and stood in front of him, holding the new tail and handing it to him.

”It’s finally done!”

———————

There were many times during his life when Rodea had felt nervous. Taking down the titan guardians of all the Chronos Towers? Having to face his fellow R-Series units in a death match? Defeating Geardo?

All of those things seemed so small right now when Rodea stood outside of Ion’s house, as she was installing the new tail on him.

The robot tensed and untensed his shoulders, trying to ease himself to the weird feeling he had as Ion had removed his old tail part, and was currently putting in the new one. He looked up, scanning the sky above him. The sky was a very deep, deep hue of blue, not quite black, as there were signs of a dawn in the distant horizon. Some clouds floating far in the distance already reflected some of that light. He could also see couple birds soaring far above him, just peacefully riding in the wind. The weather today seemed to be pleasant, perfect for flying.

And yet, Rodea couldn’t help but feel nervous tingles all around his body. Maybe it was just static? Or the moisture from the grass he was standing on getting into his system? He wasn’t even sure himself.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by a clicking sound, as he felt a new weight on his tail. He turned around to see the new tail part attached to him. Ion had modified it quite a bit since the last time, and while the basic design was the same (teal color and all), he’d heard from Ion about the things she had changed in the tail and how it functioned now. There was a high chance it was going to work this time.

”Alright” the mechanic said, getting up and standing next to Rodea, ”How does that feel?”

Rodea swung the tail around. It definitely felt different from his original tail, but he couldn’t say if it was a good or bad kind of different. Not yet.

Rodea looked at Ion and nodded, and she smiled: ”Alright, let’s give it a try, then! How about...there?”

Rodea’s eyes followed the direction Ion pointed at, seeing a small island floating alone quite far away from the house. He was sure he couldn’t have reached that with his old tail.

”How about something smaller?” Rodea asked, slumping down a bit, ”Last time we did this I crashed through a window, I’d rather not risk it and fall from the sky…”

He stopped as he noticed Ion looking offended. Right. They both had decided to do this. Trust their bond. Still, Rodea was visibly relieved when Ion just sighed and said:

”Well, fine. What about that tree?”

Rodea looked down. There was a tree standing on the path down from the hill towards the village. That seemed easy enough.

The robot’s entire body tensed as he prepared, and he leapt in the air. The power of the jump surprised him again. Ion had told him she’d increased the power of the tail so this wasn’t news to him, but getting used to that power would take some time. Last time the controls of the tail were...well, awful, but this time Rodea felt like he was able to control the direction of his flight just fine. And before he even realised it, he had reached a small spot next to the tree he was aiming for, and landed softly in the grass.

So far so good, it seemed.

He glanced back up as he heard Ion cheering, and he leapt at her, swiftly landing on a spot next to her.

”Great! So, how does it feel?” Ion asked, clearly excited.

”Honestly...not bad. Not bad at all” he said as he lifted up the tail, and motioned at it with his hand, ”It controls so much better this time.”

Ion grinned. ”Good to hear! Now, do you want to put it in a real test?”

Rodea knew immediately what she meant, and he would’ve swallowed if he could. The small island she had suggested just a moment ago...Rodea looked at it, feeling the tingles again. It was so far away. And there was nothing around or below it to stop Rodea from potentially falling.

”Before you go, let me explain the new features in your tail” Ion started, putting one of her hands on her hip and making motions with the other one, ”Your old tail gains boost from any solid object, but I built this one in a way it can also boost from the wind. With that, you can fly longer distances than before! Now, try it yourself!”

Rodea slightly squinted his eyes at her. That explanation barely helped, he thought, but said nothing. He turned his face to Ion and just made a brushing off motion with his hand, signaling her to take some distance. She understood, as she stepped away from him, giving him more space. There were the tingles again. Rodea tensed his entire body, and then untensed again. Calm yourself. Trust our bond.

Rodea braced himself, and set himself to a position prepared for a leap. I trust her.

And so he leapt.

Rodea leapt with a power he had never before, quickly leaving the house behind him, and soaring through the sky. He barely heard Ion far behind him, as she had squealed, and he turned his head around to check if everything was okay. He was already so far away that he couldn’t see clearly, but it seemed that Ion was just surprised and was already gaining her composure. Relieved, Rodea turned his face back to look directly forward.

Even with that powerful boost, the island was still so far away...Rodea could tell he was getting closer, but to his dismay, it seemed that his boost wasn’t enough to reach it. His flight slowed down, and he started to lose altitude...

”...Rodea!”

Rodea almost lost his composure and nearly fell as he heard the voice as if it spoke directly to his ear. Ion?!

Oh, right. The Ionceiver, duh.

”Now, Rodea! Boost from the wind!”

”...Alright!”

He wasn’t sure how to do it, but he had to try (or else he’d fall and…). The robot braced himself, and did the same thing as he would do when boosting from the ground.

And with that, he leapt through the sky at high speed. He soared again, wind blowing in his ears, clouds passing by (and he could’ve swore he heard a surprised gull squeaking as he almost seemed to hit something resembling like a bird) as he approached the island quickly…

And his feet touched the soft grass as he gently landed on the ground.

Rodea looked around. He was there, standing on the small island. He looked down behind him, seeing Ion’s house far away below him, and saw a small figure next to the house that seemed to be jumping up and down. He could hear Ion’s cheering through the Ionceiver, confirming that it was indeed her.

The robot glanced to the other side of the island, gazing at the horizon that had started to lit up. The first rays of the sun shone across the sky, lighting up the entire world, slowly turning the dark blue sky into a brilliant shade of turquoise.

But even that beautiful sight was nearly outshined by the smile on Rodea’s face, almost as bright and cheerful as the sun itself.

Chapter Text

”Ion…wake up, Ion...”

Ion just pushed her face deeper into the pillow she was sleeping on, and mumbled in her sleep. ”No, grandpa...let me sleep…just five more minutes, please...”

”Ion!”

Wait. That wasn’t grandpa’s voice.

Ion’s eyes shot open and he got up, seeing Rodea next to her. The robot was holding her shoulder, as he was trying to shake her awake. Seeing that she was up and awake, he released his grip and took a step back to give her some room.

Ion quickly looked around her. The room was fairly dark, there was barely any light coming out of the window. It must’ve been very early in the morning (or late at night, depending on how you looked at it). The girl tried to look at the clock on the wall to confirm the time, but no matter how hard she squinted, she couldn’t quite see. It was still too dark.

However, she could easily tell the dark, shadowy figure standing next to her was Rodea (even if it was mostly just by his voice and the shape of his silhouette).

”Rodea? What...why you’re waking me up this early?”

Rodea stepped back, and Ion was pretty sure she saw his eyes open wide, blinking in confusion. ”We did a promise, don’t you remember? About this morning?”

”What…?”

Oh wait, she did make a promise with him.

It’d been a few days since Ion finished Rodea’s new tail. Ever since the test flight on that one morning, she barely had seen Rodea touch the ground again. He was spending his time just constantly in the air, usually soaring far, far in the sky above the village. The new tail was clearly a success, and Ion was happy for Rodea.

And with that, Rodea’s daily flights started to take longer. Before building the new tail, he usually returned from his trips by the sunset. But now Ion only saw him coming back long after it got dark, and since he always left so early in the morning that Ion was still sleeping, she barely got to see him anymore.

Last night, however, Rodea had approached Ion before going to sleep, asking her what she was up to the next day.

”Tomorrow?” Ion asked, spinning around on her chair to face the robot, ”I don’t know, probably just the usual. Why?”

Rodea had shifted nervously on his feet, his gaze averting around the room while avoiding a direct eye contact with the mechanic. ”Well...I was thinking if you wanted to come with me tomorrow.”

Ion blinked in surprise. Rodea had never invited her to anywhere before.

”Really? To where?”

Rodea ran his left hand in his silvery hair, rolling his eyes while making an awkward smile. ”I found this place today while flying around, and I want to take you there. I think you’d like it there.”

The mechanic stared at him blankly. Rodea coughed as if he was trying to clear his throat, and added: ”Though, if you want to go, we would have to go there early in the morning, before the the sun rises. So...”

Ion just kept staring at him, tilting her head slightly. Early in the morning, huh?

Ion was not a morning person, no. When she was still living with her grandpa, she always complained when he got up too early, making noise in the house and waking her up in the process. One of the perks of living on her own was to choose whenever she would wake up, which usually was way too late on the ”normal” people’s standards. And even though Rodea lived with her and woke up early (way too early in Ion’s opinion) he never managed to wake her up while sneaking out for his everyday morning flight. It was such a blessing.

But even so, Rodea was now directly offering Ion an opportunity to spend more time with him. And the girl didn’t even have to think twice about her choice here.

She had fallen silent for a moment as all those thoughts went by, and Rodea was clearly growing more anxious by every second he waited for an answer. Finally, Ion flashed him a sweet smile: ”I’d be glad to go there with you!”

”Oh..! Well, I guess it’s a promise, then?”

”Yep! It’s a promise!”

...yeah, now Ion remembered. They did indeed make a promise.

As Ion returned from her thoughts, she was again in the dark room with Rodea standing near to her. He just stood there, patiently looking at her.

”Ion? Are we going, or…?”

”Right!” she said, hopping out of her bed, ”Just give me a minute, I’ll be ready in a sec!”

———————

Rodea stood outside of Ion’s house, his tail gently swaying around as he was looking at the sky. It was still so dark you could see the tiny stars filling the sky, but it was getting noticeably brighter in the far horizon. There was some mist floating above the grass, filling the air in light moisture.

The robot turned around as he heard a clack from the front door opening, as Ion stepped out of the house. She was mostly dressed up like usual, but she was also wearing a pink scarf around her neck. Rodea’s sensors told him it was a chilly morning, so it was definitely for the best if she wore warm clothes.

”Are we ready?” Rodea asked, putting a hand on his hip and swinging his tail almost impatiently.

”Yeah, just let me go get the Ion Wave…”

But as Ion stepped towards to the shed where she kept the airship, Rodea grabbed her arm to stop her.

”No, we don’t need it today.”

”What? Why?” Ion asked, slightly confused, ”I thought this place was somewhere you could only reach through the air.”

Rodea nodded, letting go of her arm. ”It is. And I’ll be taking you there.”

Ion just stood there, her brain trying to register what Rodea was telling her. And then it hit her.

”Wait...you mean you’ll carry me there?!”

Rodea nodded again. Ion almost wondered if he was joking, but she looked in his eyes, and they were totally serious.

The idea of Rodea carrying her while flying...well, it wasn’t something Ion had expected to hear from Rodea himself. Specially not after what had happened that one time.

Some while ago, Ion was filled with curiousity about what it was like to fly freely like all the robots in the R-Series. So she had approached the unsuspecting Rodea while he was preparing for a launch, and jumped on him…

Long story short, after some quick and skilled aerial maneuvering from Rodea, Ion did not fall from the sky (even though she came close) and Rodea had given her a long lecture about how hard it would be for him to fly and carry her at the same time and scolded her for (literally) jumping on him like that.

”I thought you couldn’t carry me while flying” Ion said, looking away absentmindedly.

”That was true when I still had my old tail, but...” Rodea said with a confident smile while glancing over his shoulder and waving his tail in the air, ”This new tail you made for me is so powerful that I think...I know it can carry us both.”

Right. Ion knew all too well how much power there was in that tail (she had built it, after all). But not even once while building it she had thought about if it was able to lift two people in the air...though, now that she thought about it, it was definitely possible, so Rodea could be right about this.

The least they could do was to try it out.

”Are you sure we can’t go there with the Ion Wave?”

”Positive. The place where we are going to doesn’t have any good landing spots for the Ion Wave. This is the only way I can take you there.”

The two of them stood there, outside of Ion’s house. Rodea positioned himself in front of Ion, bending down a bit (but not much, as she was quite a bit taller than him) to make in easier for her to climb on. Trusting Rodea, she hopped on him, as Rodea put his arms around her legs, lifting her up and giving her a piggyback ride.

”Are you ready?” Rodea asked, glancing over his shoulder while making sure he had a good grip on her legs.

Ion pulled her goggles over her eyes, and put her hands on Rodea’s shoulders. ”As ready as I can be!”

She felt Rodea’s entire body tense under her.

”Then...we’re off!”

Despite the warning, Ion winced at the sheer power they launched into the air. Even though she was wearing goggles to protect her eyes from the wind, she had closed her eyes from the surprise. She just gripped the robot’s shoulders so hard, trying to not fall off.

A moment passed in silence with only the wind whistling in Ion’s ears, while still keeping her eyes shut. After the initial boost from the ground, she felt Rodea’s flying leveling out, just moving straight forward without any bumps. Even so, the wind felt so overwhelming against her face, and she couldn’t muster enough courage to open her eyes.

”...Everything okay, Ion? Are you good up there?”

She finally started to slowly open her eyes after hearing Rodea’s voice, and the first thing she saw was him looking at her over his shoulder with a slight concern on his face.

”Yeah…” the mechanic managed to say, wind still feeling so strong in her face, ”I was just a bit surprised, that’s all.”

”That’s good” Rodea said almost like he was sighing in relief, and turning his face to gaze ahead, ”Now, look!”

Ion raised her gaze from the robot to see what was in front of her.

They were really, really high up, as Ion could see some small islands passing by far below them. The sky all around her was so blue and deep she almost felt like she could just get lost into it if she kept staring at it. And there, below them in the horizon, she could see a bright light, illuminating the entire world with shining streaks trailing in the sky.

Ion had seen the sunrise before, and it was always beautiful, specially here in Garuda that was so high up in the sky. But this was somehow different than any of the sunrises she had ever witnessed. Soaring in the deep blue sky without any boundaries, only hearing the whistle from the wind in her ears...it felt so freeing.

Neither of them dared to say anything, almost as if they feared it would end the magic of that moment. Finally, after a while, Ion pulled herself closer to the flying robot and mustered enough courage to speak up:

”..Is this what you wanted to show me, Rodea?”

”Well...it was part of it” Rodea said in a slightly amused tone (he suddenly boosted in the air, gaining a small yelp from Ion), ”But the real reason I brought you along is over there!”

Ion looked ahead of then, squinting her eyes. She did see a small island they were approaching. At the first glance there was nothing unsual about the island, it seemed like a pretty plain and open small island like many others in Garuda.

Soon enough they arrived to the island, Rodea landing on it as gently as he could while carrying Ion. After making sure he was steady on his feet and the ground under him was firm enough, he lowered himself to allow the girl to hop off him. But as Ion carefully tried to get off and stand, she suddenly stumbled on her feet, and tripped.

”Ah…!”

She nearly fell to the ground, only stopped by Rodea who quickly caught her in his arms. His face was instantly filled with worry. ”Are you alright, Ion?!”

Ion’s hands grabbed Rodea’s arms to keep herself upright, and she laughed weakly. ”Yeah...sorry, I think my legs just gave up from the thrill of that flight. Just give me a moment, I think I’ll be okay just in a sec…”

Rodea sighed in relief, his body visibly relaxing a little bit. He allowed Ion lean to him as they stood there, not saying a single word to each other for a moment. It was almost as if everything around them ceased to exist, as the robot’s usually so harsh and piercing cyan eyes were filled with care as they fixed to the girl in his arms while she was taking deep breaths and regaining her composure.

Neither of them were sure how long they just stood there, until finally Ion moved her hand to push herself away, getting wobbly back on her feet. Rodea kept his grip on her until he was absolutely sure she was standing steady, and slowly let her go. They stood there for a moment, looking at each other.

”Thank you, Rodea…”

Rodea gave her a small smile. ”It’s no problem.”

They kept looking at each other for little longer, until Rodea turned his head away to look around the island they were standing on.

”Anyway, we’re finally here!”

Right! Ion had almost completely forgot what they were doing again. She gazed around the island they had arrived on. It was a fairly small island without any landmarks or anything that made it stand out much from any other island floating in Garuda. All there really was just grass, and…

”Stop, Ion! Watch where you step!”

The girl was startled by Rodea’s sudden warning when she had tried to just take a step and walk around. She looked at the robot with a surprised and questioning look, and Rodea motioned to the ground with his hand.

”You don’t want to step on them, do you?”

Wondering what he meant by that, Ion looked down at her feet, and...saw a tiny blue flower next to her. She blinked. She then raised her head, looking around the island, and only noticed now that it was filled by these tiny blue flowers. They were growing everywhere on this small island, almost looking like a small blue lake.

”There are so many flowers…” Ion said.

”There indeed are” Rodea agreed, turning back to Ion, ”It’s so rare to see so many of them in the same place.”

Ion looked back at Rodea, raising a brow in question. ”What do you mean?”

”Well…” the robot started, placing a hand on his hip and looking down at the flowers, ”I just recently read about these particular flowers from a book. They don’t usually grow in big patches like this, and they are exceedingly rare in Garuda.”

Oh yeah...Ion stretched the egdes of her memory. She’d seen Rodea reading some books in her room (he had borrowed most of them from the villagers) while she was working on fixing machines and creating new ones. She vaguely remembered seeing a book about botany in his book pile recently, which is probably where he had learned about these flowers.

She understood now why Rodea had insisted bringing her there by himself, and not using the Ion Wave. As she looked around, she could easily tell there was not a spot big enough on the island where the Ion Wave could land without crushing the flowers. Ion maybe wasn’t the one to know about flowers and plants (she was a mechanic for a reason), but it didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate them.

”I see...so it’s almost like a miracle to find an entire island filled with them, right?”

”Yeah.”

It indeed felt like a miracle. It’s not like Garuda was overpopulated with people, there were plenty of unhabitated islands like this all over the place. But not every day you would find a place seemingly no one knew about, a place that was so pure and untouched by a human (or robot) hand.

”I guess only you and I know this place even exists, then?”

Rodea nodded.

”It seems like it.”

Surely there could be some botanist out there who would love to find an island like this, but…

Ion smiled gently.

”Good.”

And with that, a comfortable silence fell between the mechanic girl and the robot boy. They stood there for a while, just looking at this small miraculous island. The tiny blue flowers swayed gently in the wind, and just looking at them filled Ion with an odd, peaceful feeling.

After a while, Ion sat down (while being careful not to crush any flowers) in the grass, holding her knees close to her while crossing her arms over them. Rodea stood there for a moment, and then he caredully sat down in a spot right next to the girl. The two just sat there, looking over the island. They were there for a while, with the sky slowly turning into a more and more brighter shade of blue as the sun kept rising up in the sky.

No words needed to be said, but Ion still wanted to say it.

”Hey, Rodea?”

It looked like Rodea had been deep in thought, as it seemed like he was caught off-guard when he turned his head to Ion.

”What?”

”Thank you for bringing me here.”

Rodea looked away, gazing at the island and the blue, wide sky that opened before them.

”You’re welcome.”

Chapter Text

”Just keep flying straight. We are currently going in the right direction.”

”Roger that” Rodea answered to Ion’s voice he heard over the Ionceiver, placing his hand over his ear to block out the wind so that he could hear her better.

Rodea’s sensors told him about a steep temperature drop as he kept going forward in the cloud he was currently flying through. Soon enough tiny snowflakes started to slowly float around him, and not long after that he emerged from the cloud into clear, frozen air, and saw a group of islands covered in ice and snow ahead of him.

He looked behind him, seeing the Ion Wave also emerging from the cloud as it followed closely behind him.

”It’s been a while since we were here, right?” Ion’s voice buzzed over the Ionceiveir.

”Yeah. Still, I didn’t think we’d be back here so soon.”

———————

It was only yesterday when a traveling merchant had arrived to Ion’s village.

After browsing some of his wares and chatting with him, Ion found out that the poor man had lost some of his cargo in turbulence while flying over the icy lands in Garuda. And well, Ion being the kindhearted person she was, had promised to go and find the lost cargo for him.

Or to be more precise, she had promised that she and Rodea would go.

Even though Rodea had also been there, making ”no, stop” motions with his hands, trying to signal Ion that he wanted to stay out of this. Too many times this girl just willy-nilly promised people that Rodea would help them. (It’s not like Rodea didn’t want to help people, he just didn’t like when Ion dragged him into doing so.)

And so they were now flying towards the coordinates of the general area where the merchant had lost his cargo, hoping to find something and not have this entire trip being a waste of their time.

”I still can’t believe you promised him something like that without asking from me first” Rodea muttered to himself as he flew, chilly wind blowing against him.

”Hey! It’s always nice to help out others!” Ion’s voice buzzed in Rodea’s head. The robot just rolled his eyes (even though he knew she couldn’t see it). ”Besides, you came with me, so it means you wanted to help him, too!”

”Well, yeah, but…” I can’t just say ”I mostly came to make sure you wouldn’t get in any trouble”, Rodea thought.

”We’ll just get there, check if there’s anything in the area, and pick up anything we might find and go back. Nothing too hard!”

”I hope so. After all, you don’t have a heater in there, do you?” Rodea said in a teasing tone, glancing over his shoulder to look at the Ion Wave that floated behind him, ”We better get in and out of this place before it gets too cold in there!”

”Hehee...I came prepared this time!” Ion’s voice giggled, ”Now I have a heater installed in the Ion Wave, so no more frozen fingers or toes for me!”

”...Didn’t you say those things aren’t very energy efficient?”

”Hush you. And besides, this heater model is very energy efficient! I built it myself, after all!”

Rodea just sighed. This girl, I swear.

After that, the Ionceiver went silent, and Rodea pushed forward in the icy air while still flying ahead of the Ion Wave. Few snowy islands went by, and Rodea scanned with his eyes around them to see if anything stood out. But no, there was only snow and ice everywhere, with some snow-covered trees standing there and there.

After short a while, Rodea noticed something weird about his flight. It felt like he was slowing down faster than he should. To confirm his suspicions, the Ion Wave behind him almost hit him as it caught up to him, and the robot barely managed to maneuver himself out of the way before hitting the ship.

”Whoah! What was that all about, Rodea?” Ion’s voice through the Ionceiver exclaimed in surprise.

”I...I can’t fly any faster!” Rodea panicked, looking behind at his tail. He was trying to boost from the wind, but he barely moved anywhere.

”What?!”

”My tail...it’s not working!”

That’s all Rodea managed to say before he started rapidly lose altitude — and he fell. Ion heard him screaming through the Ionceiver as she could only watch in horror the robot plummeting out of the sky.

”RODEA!”

———————

The Ion Wave landed on a snowy island, with some snow rising in the air as a white, glittery dust from the impact of the airship hitting the ground.

The snow hadn’t even settled down when Ion hopped out of the ship, her feet quickly sinking in the snow. Luckily the snow wasn’t too deep, and she could walk around without any issues.

”Rodea...Rodea! Please answer if you can hear me!” she called out, cupping her hand around her mouth to make her voice carry around better. But no answer could be heard.

She had seen Rodea fall to the island she’d landed on, but she had not seen where exactly he had fell. Holding a portable version of the Ionceiver in her hands, she called out for him again.

All Ion could hear through the Ionceiver was muffled out noises that vaguely sounded like Rodea. It seemed that he was alive (thank goodness) and probably buried in something, somewhere. Most likely in snow if Ion had to make a guess.

The mechanic looked around, trying to see if she could spot any signs of him anywhere nearby.

The island was mostly bare (like many other islands in Garuda) with a couple snow-covered trees, and a high cliff by the other edge of the island. Otherwise it was just some rocks, piles of snow, and legs sticking out of those piles…

Wait. Legs?

Not too far away from Ion was a big pile of snow next to some trees and a big rock. Squinting her eyes, she definitely could tell that those were legs, peeking out of the snow. And she was sure she saw a tail, too.

And she certainly knew to who those legs and tail belonged to.

Making her way through the snow, Ion walked as fast as she could to the pile of snow where the robot was buried in.

”Rodea? You okay?” Ion asked with worry in her voice as she was standing next to the snowpile. The only answer she got was some muffled noises, as the legs started to kick in the air. Well, at least he was still alive.

Climbing up the pile, Ion walked up to where Rodea’s legs came out of the snow, and started to dig the snow around him with her hands. However, after a moment she realised it was taking too long, so instead of digging she grabbed his legs and pulled. And pulled.

”Hnnngghhooohhh…”

Putting all of her strength to it, she managed to pull him out enough that she saw his body and arms. Letting him go, Rodea’s legs hit to the ground, and the robot pulled the rest of himself out the snow.

”Bwaah…!” Almost as gasping for air he shakily got up, big clumps of snow falling from him.

”Rodea! Are you alright?” Ion asked, standing in front of Rodea and placing her hands on his arms. Rodea shook off some snow out of his ear, eyes closed.

”Y-yeah...I think I’ll manage” he said, shaking his shoulders, trying get rid of the snow that still covered him. Ion helped by brushing snow out of his right arm and the cog shoulder while checking the arm wasn’t harmed or anything. She hadn’t really covered the mechanical parts of the arm when she had built it for Rodea, and now she was worried if any snow had gotten inside it, potentially breaking it. But luckily, the arm seemed to be okay, as the big cog on the shoulder kept moving and Rodea clearly could move the arm around. Rodea had told her the arm might’ve looked shabby, but it was very strong and he trusted it. Seems like it was worth of that trust, after all.

They both stood there for a moment, diligently cleaning together Rodea out of the snow that was stuck on his body. Finally, Ion stepped away, looking at him and crossing her arms.

”Rodea...what happened there? Why did you fall so suddenly?”

Rodea shook his head one more time to get rid of the rest of the snow stuck in his hair. Ion stretched out her hand to reach a strand of his hair that still had a bit snow on it, brushing it off. Rodea’s face seemed to grow a bit red from the gesture, his eyes averting from looking directly at Ion, but he was still trying to keep on his ”tough guy” act.

”I don’t know, it just…” he finally answered Ion, looking down and sounding unsure, ”Suddenly I just lost the control over my tail, and I couldn’t fly anymore.”

Rodea looked over at his tail, trying to move it around, but he barely could lift it from the snow. He turned back to Ion, giving her a miserable look.

”So you can’t control your tail? Let me see” Ion said, kneeling in the snow next to Rodea and grabbing his tail. He just looked down at her, deeply furrowing his brows.

As Ion touched his tail, she gasped loudly. ”What...it’s frozen!”

”What?!” Rodea jumped in surprise, almost tripping and falling over in the snow before regaining his balance.

”Just look” Ion said, holding the tip of this tail (the part Ion had built him that gave him the ability to fly) and showed it to him, ”It’s all covered in ice!”

Rodea looked carefully at the tail. It was hard to see because of the tail’s teal coloring, but sure enough: he saw that the entire tail was covered in a thin layer of ice.

”But...how?” Rodea asked, spreading his arms in confusion as Ion stood up next to him, ”My old tail never froze like this! Sure, when I fought Kelvis she could freeze it, but I was able to shake it off…”

Ion pondered for a moment, her fist against her chin, and suddenly her face lit up as she realised something.

”Oh…! Oh!”

”...What? What?” Rodea asked impatiently, leaning a bit towards Ion with his arms hanging down.

”Oh, haha…” the mechanic laughed, looking slightly embarrassed. Oh no, Rodea thought. When she laughed like that, it never meant anything good. The robot just leant back, his arms crossed while squinting his eyes at her, basically saying ”just spill the beans”.

”Well, you see…” she started, rubbing the back of her head with her hand, ”When I built your new tail, I was so worried it would overheat with all the power I added to it, so I made extra sure it wouldn’t…”

”Uhhuh.”

”Aaaand because it doesn’t generate enough heat now, the moisture in the air doesn’t evaporate from it and just collects on to the surface of the tail, and since we are in a place where it’s cold enough for water to freeze in the air…”

”So my tail just freezes when it’s cold enough?”

”Pretty much, yeah.”

Rodea rubbed his neck and let out a defeated sigh.

”But don’t worry!” Ion said hastily, shaking her hands, ”I can make some modifications to the tail, and change it so it generates more heat, preventing situations like this! But...”

”But…?” Of course. Of course there is always a ”but”.

”But I can’t do it with the equipment I have with me right now, so you have to wait until we get home.”

”Wait...but that means I can’t fly now!” his voice peaked high, nearly cracking, ”Now we can’t go finish the mission we came here for! This entire trip was all for nothing!”

”Well, it was not all for nothing” Ion said, picking up a small machine from the purse on her belt, and clicking some buttons while looking at a small monitor on it. ”Our current location is not too far away from the coordinates the guy gave us. We might as well fly there with the Ion Wave and look around if we see anything. And if manage to find something, we can at least report that to him even if we can’t pick it up!”

Rodea’s head slumped down between his shoulders.

”Great. Just great.”

———————

”...So this is what the Ion Wave looks like inside, huh?”

”Oh? Right, I guess this is your first time inside?” Ion said, looking back to Rodea as he stepped in the airship and closed the door behind him. ”Well, welcome to the Ion Wave! Just sit anywhere you like, though the heater is over there.”

Rodea scanned around the insides of the ship. It was not big, but there was enough room for a few people (although he already knew that). He was in a small cabin with a cushioned bench that had many blankets on it, and a small table next to the bench. On the wall there was a self filled with all kinds foods, snacks and drinks. The floor had some mechanical parts lying around haphazardly (Rodea had to look out for his step so he wouldn’t trip over anything), and he saw a toolbox in the corner as well. Overall it seemed like what Ion would think was ”cozy”, but to him it looked just messy, although not as messy as Ion’s own house.

There was a door that lead out of the ship that Rodea had used to enter the ship, another door that said ”engine” on it, and a door that most likely was the bathroom (Rodea really didn’t care to look inside to check). From the cabin a small, open space lead to the ship’s control room where Ion currently was, working at getting the ship to the air.

Rodea walked to the bench, sitting down next to what he assumed was the heater, and put his frozen tail against it.

The ship started to make whirring noises as the engine turned on, and looking out of the window behind him, Rodea could see the ship slowly taking off. Soon enough the ship was in the air, soaring back to the sky as it continued towards the place they were heading to, leaving behind a trail of snow that was stuck on the ship while it was grounded.

Some time went by in silence, only the sounds of the ship’s engine filling the room. Rodea’s eyes were glued to the window, looking outside as he saw some frozen islands and clouds passing by slowly. Seeing his own reflection on the window, he let out a sigh.

”Has your tail melted yet?” the robot heard Ion’s voice coming from the control room. He looked down at his tail next to the heater, and saw a small puddle of water on the floor under it.

”...Yeah.”

”Does it still function? Wait…” Rodea glanced up, seeing Ion looking at him over her shoulder, ”Don’t forget the ”no flying indoors” rule!”

Yeah, yeah. The first time Rodea had visited Ion, that rule was implemented very quickly after he...created some mess while leaping inside the house. Apparently it hadn’t occurred to the robot that suddenly launching himself indoors was not a very good idea.

Rodea lifted up his tail (at least he could move it around again), carefully checking if it still worked. He did the ”bracing for the jump” action without the actual jumping part, and from what he could tell, it still worked.

”Looks like it’s working just fine” Rodea raised his voice so Ion could hear him over the engine’s whirring, and he saw the mechanic smiling in his direction.

”That’s good to hear.”

Rodea kept sitting on the bench, turning his face to the window again, putting his hand over his cheek and leaning his elbow against the window still. Ion couldn’t help but notice how quiet he had been ever since entering the ship.

”Hey, Rodea?” Ion asked, turning her head around a bit to see him.

”Hm?” the robot only hummed in response, moving his head enough so that he could look at her.

”I’m sorry about your tail...I probably should have seen this coming, but I didn’t” she said, sounding very sincere, ”Once we return, I’ll put back your old tail so you don’t have to stay grounded any longer...and I understand if you don’t want to have the new tail anymore.”

Rodea looked visibly shocked, turning himself completely around to face the girl. ”What…?! No, I would never want that!” he said in a reassuring tone, shaking his hands. Ion was caught completely off-guard by his sudden reaction from him.

”I mean…” Rodea said, looking down while smiling, ”Sure, you probably could’ve avoided this, but still...this tail you built, I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. You put all your heart and gut instinct to it, and I’m sure it’ll be even better once you fix this...tiny problem with it.”

He raised his head, giving Ion a big grin. Ion smiled back at him, and turned her head to look forward as she steered the ship.

”Thank you, Rodea...anyway, it seems that we’re finally there.”

The robot turned around to look out of the window again, seeing that they had arrived to a very mountainous area. The Ion Wave moved to fly in a narrow pass between two icy mountains, lowering down enough so Ion and Rodea could observe the area and see if there was anything stuck on the cliffs.

”Keep your eyes peeled, okay?” Ion asked while looking ahead, ”I need to be really careful while flying the ship this close to the cliffs.”

Rodea only nodded in response (even though Ion couldn’t see it) and kept his eyes fixed to the window, scanning the area around them. The ship slowly drifted forward, as Ion steered it carefully.

”There…!” Rodea suddenly yelped, almost scaring Ion so much she nearly steered the ship into a cliff by an accident. ”There, right under us! I think I saw something down there!”

Nodding, Ion slowly halted the Ion Wave’s forward momentum, and the ship started to descent. With Rodea’s help, Ion noticed something like crates sticking out of the snow on a pretty flat cliff. With exceeding care, the mechanic managed to land the ship on the cliff, and as soon it hit to the ground, the girl and the robot hopped out of the ship, awkwardly stumbling in the snow towards the crates.

After quickly checking the crates, they were able to confirm that they were indeed the lost cargo they were looking for.

———————

”That was the last one of them…” Rodea huffed, as the hauled the last crate in the Ion Wave, ”We can finally leave, right, Ion?”

Rodea looked around the cabin in the Ion Wave, filled with the crates. He couldn’t see Ion anywhere in there.

”Ion…?” He called out, stepping out of the ship, looking around the snowy cliff the ship was docked on. All he could see was their footsteps in the snow, and the dragging marks from Rodea moving the crates to the ship. But no signs of her.

”Hey, Ion? This isn’t funny, you know!” he said with an increasingly annoyed voice, walking in the snow while trying to look around and finding any signs of the mechanic. Seriously, where the heck is she? She couldn’t have just disappeared! Rodea halted, standing for a moment in the snow with an irritated look on his face while swinging his tail around, when suddenly he was hit with a horrifying thought.

Don’t tell me she’s…! The robot sprinted as fast as he could, stumbling a bit in the snow as he ran to the edge of the cliff, and looked down.

”ION! IOOON!” he cried out, fearing the worst...when he saw something fly past his head, falling down from the cliff. Something resembling like a ball of snow.

What the…Rodea heard a very familiar giggle somewhere behind him, and he spun his entire body around on his heels. And there, behind a big rock near the Ion Wave, he could see Ion’s head peeking out as she laughed.

”Hey! That’s not funny!” Rodea yelled, very clearly upset, ”I seriously thought something had happened to you!”

Ion stepped out of her hiding place, holding a snowball in her hand. ”Oh, you worry too much sometimes! Come on, don’t you get a tiny joke?”

”No” he answered bluntly, ”I came here to get the guy’s cargo, and now that we have it, we can finally head back. So get back in the ship so we can leave this place!”

”Please, we’re not in a such hurry” Ion said, rolling her eyes, ”The merchant said he’d stay in the village for few days. We can always have little time for some fun.”

”I’d rather not stay in this place more than needed to” Rodea retorted and raised his hand dramatically, gesturing the area around him, ”Snow and ice are just an inconvenience, and the less I need to deal with it, the better.”

To make his point stand out, he curled his tail around his legs. Ion took a note of this.

”...Fine” the mechanic caved in, puffing up her cheeks and pouting. Rodea only rolled his eyes at her dramatics. He just decided to ignore her for now, and walked past her as she stood there in the snow, looking upset. But as he headed towards the ship...Rodea noticed something suddenly hitting the back of his head. He turned around, seeing Ion with a one less snowball in her hands than a moment ago, pretending to be innocent.

Oh. It’s on. The robot bent down, scooping some snow in his hands and quickly forming it into a snowball he threw towards Ion. The girl just shrieked, running away while dodging his throw, and picked up some snow to make a snowball herself, throwing it back at Rodea.

The two of them just kept at it, throwing snowballs at each other. Shrieks and yells slowly turned into a genuine laughter, as the snowball fight went on and on. Soon enough Rodea completely forgot how upset he was about everything that had happened on that day with his tail and everything else, totally losing the track of time as he kept running after Ion with snowballs in his hands. With so much going on sometimes, it was so easy to just get too wound up and forgetting the good sides of things. And as Rodea was there, in the snow chasing Ion (or Ion chasing him when she fiercely counterattacked with her snowballs), all his nerves loosened up, and at last he relaxed.

And finally, he felt genuinely happy about coming there.

Rodea and Ion continued their fight for so long, neither of them were sure how much time had passed. After a while both of them were covered in snow, exhausted. But Ion was slowly getting more out of breath, and her face started turning blue. As soon as Rodea noticed this, he put a stop to the fight. Wrapping his hands around her shoulders, they walked back to the ship.

As they headed back inside the Ion Wave, Ion wrapped herself in two blankets and had a cup of hot tea as she sat down next to the heater, warming herself up. Rodea took the spot on the bench next to her, sitting down. They sat there in silence for a moment, the only noises being the rhythmic sounds of the cog on Rodea’s shoulder turning around, Ion’s slowly calming breaths and the occasional sips as she drank her tea.

Rodea looked over his shoulder, out of the window behind him. He noticed that the sky had started to turn darker. It’d be probably totally dark by the time they’d be back. Ion’s grandfather probably would give him an earful for keeping his granddaughter away from home for so long, and potentially letting her catch a cold. But as he was there in the Ion Wave, sitting next to Ion as the color slowly returned to her face, and she looked at him while making the sweetest of smiles that nearly made his entire system malfunction...

Rodea did not mind that, not at all.

Chapter Text

Just another beautiful, perfect day in Garuda, Rodea thought as he looked up in the sky.

The robot was laying on his back on the roof of Ion’s house with his arms crossed behind his head. A gentle breeze blew over him, making the leaves in nearby trees rustle quietly. As he was laying there, he looked up in the sky, watching as some clouds far above him drifted by slowly. The clouds were so far away that they looked like small, white little puffballs against the brilliantly blue sky. Endlessly floating in the wind, they slowly appeared and disappeared from Rodea’s view.

He closed his eyes, and sighed. Such a nice day today.

Even if the day was so beautiful and perfect, something was amiss. There was this aching feeling in Rodea’s chest, almost like a piece of his heart missing. And it hurt, it really hurt.

Rodea heard a slightly mechanical voice approaching him. As he opened his eyes, he saw a shadow falling next to him.

”My, my. Fancy seeing you here, Rodea.”

Ah. It’s him.

Getting in a sitting position with his arms holding up his body, Rodea glanced over his shoulder to look at the source of the shadow and voice.

”Hello, Orthos” Rodea dryly addressed the other R-Series robot who hovered in the air behind him for a bit, and then landed on the roof next to him. They both stayed silent for a moment.

The red robot really wasn’t now in a mood to talk with him or the other robots. At least Orthos, Rylus and Kelvis called Rodea by his name now and not ”R0”, his serial number. It honestly could be much, much worse. Like when they all tried to kill Rodea. Good times. Expect not really.

”It’s been a while since we’ve talked” Orthos finally spoke up, ”How you’ve been?”

”Nothing much…” Rodea muttered, thoughtlessly looking away from the other robot.

Orthos crossed his arms, face staying stale. ”I’ve sure heard things about you from the people in the village. It seems that you’ve had a lot of going on lately.”

Oh yeah? Like if you knew. Rodea didn’t say anything.

”Yes...that mechanic of yours…” Orthos started, Rodea visibly flinching at the mention of Ion. Either not noticing this or choosing to ignore it, Orthos continued: ”A little while ago she asked me and the others about ”enhancing our flying abilities”, or something like that.”

”…”

”Anyway, we obviously refused because it seemed like too much of a hassle for too little in return. Still, I can’t believe you went for it” Orthos said while looking down at Rodea’s tail, ”Specially since she can keep you grounded like this.”

Rodea glanced down at his tail. Well, what there was left of it, anyway. Right now it was missing a certain part. The part that gave Rodea his ability to fly was removed from it.

Still staying quiet, Rodea just looked away. Orthos didn’t seem amused. Then again, his face was completely neutral, making it hard to tell what he was even feeling or thinking right now. However, to Rodea it felt like he was only mocking him.

”Honestly, I have no idea what you were thinking, letting someone to grope with your flying ability like that. I mean, look at you now” Orthos turned to Rodea, ”She didn’t even let you have your old tail back while she is working on the new one. Did she trash it, or something?”

Of course she didn’t trash my old tail, she would never, Rodea thought. Actually, Ion had kept his old tail in perfect condition, just in case if there was a day like this when his new one needed some fixing. But Orthos didn’t need to know that. It’s none of his business, anyway.

The other robot just tsk’d from the silent treatment he was getting from Rodea. It wasn’t like Rodea was in bad terms with the other R-Series robots...but after someone is out for blood and is actively trying to kill you, there are just some things about your relationship with them that changes. There were things Rodea would and would not rather talk about with the other robots.

And his relationship with Ion and what was going on between him and her was not one of the things he wanted to talk about with Orthos, or the other robots for that matter.

Clearly getting bored with his one-sided discussion with Rodea, Orthos just got up in the air, hovering for a bit above him.

”Well, I’ll make sure to let the others know what has come of you.” And with that, he flew off, leaving Rodea alone.

The robot left alone on the roof just sighed deeply and lay down, resuming his sky-watching duties. The things Orthos said had really soured his mood, his words filling Rodea’s head: ”That mechanic of yours”...she also fixed you, you dolt. And everyone else as well. At least you could show her some respect...and you really shouldn’t talk about things you knew nothing about, she’s not keeping me grounded…

Rodea kept cursing to himself. Urgh. Having a heart and emotions is so much pain at times, how humans even manage to live with something that could hurt so much? Sometimes I wished I could just rip these unstable, illogical things hurting me out of my chest and throw them away...

Noticing that his thoughts were leading down to a very, very dark path, Rodea knew he needed something else to think about. He went back to looking at the clouds that drifted by, starting to count them to pass time and trying to empty his head out of useless thoughts that made him upset for no good reason. Looking at the clouds and sky was always oddly calming to him, and slowly he felt his nerves loosening up a bit.

A moment passed, and Rodea suddenly heard shuffling from a hatch leading to the roof. The hatch opened, with Ion’s head peeking out of it.

”Hi, Rodea...I thought I heard someone talking up here, so I came to check” She said, getting up on the roof while carrying something behind her back. Rodea sat up.

”...Orthos just flew by.”

”Oh, Olme did? I feel bad for missing him” Ion said, looking away at the distance, ”I would’ve liked to at least say hi. Anyway, did he say anything?”

Sitting on her knees, Ion scooted closer to Rodea as he just looked away. ”Not much. Kept bugging me about things.”

”About what things?” Ion asked, tilting her head in question.

”...Eh, don’t worry about it, it was nothing” Rodea said, giving her a nonchalant smile as he waved his hand. While Ion clearly wasn’t satisfied with the answer she got, she decided to just let it go for now. The robot turned back to her.

”Anyway, did you come up here to just check, or…?”

”Right!” Ion exclaimed as she turned around to pick up something behind her. Rodea leant forward, looking at her curiously, as he noticed she was holding a basket in her hands.

”I was going to have lunch, and since it’s such a nice day today I thought it’d be nice to have one outdoors, so I came here to share with you!”

Rodea glanced at the basket and then Ion, giving the girl a confused look as if he was telling her ”but I can’t eat”. Ion, clearly catching on what he was thinking, added: ”I thought you’d at least enjoy the company.”

Rodea let out a chuckle. ”Heh...I appreciate it. Thanks.”

Smiling, Ion turned to her basket, digging out some napkins and something that looked like a sandwich. After some preparations, she took a bite of her food, starting to eat. The robot was seemingly lost in thought while looking at her with a curious face, until he almost jumped at the sudden realisation how long he had just stared her. Humans think that staring someone for so long is creepy. He quickly turned his head away, ashamed of his rude behavior.

Quickly getting lost in thought again, Rodea leant his chin on his hands and listened to the calming sounds around him, letting them fill his head. The wind that every now and then picked up, swooshing over the islands while making some loose leaves from the nearby trees float around and rustle silently. The tiny humms Ion made as she ate, and occasionally some small shuffling sounds as she was taking things out from the basket. It was all so peaceful. Enjoying this peace made Rodea’s heart ache a little bit less.

The robot got so lost into listening to the voices that he didn’t even notice Ion wasn’t eating anymore, even though there was still plenty left to her sandwich. She slowly dropped her hands to her lap while still holding the sandwich, eyes filling with sadness.

”...Hey, Rodea.”

Returning from his thoughts back to reality by her voice, he let out a little ”hm?” to acknowledge he had heard her. He was smiling absentmindedly, but the instant he noticed that something was clearly wrong, his smile completely faded away and the look in his eyes turned sharp. Ion raised her shoulders, taking a deep breath.

”Why won’t you let me install your old tail back?”

Rodea’s eyes widened, his body leaning back in shock. Oh. They were having this discussion now.

They kind of had this discussion earlier that day, after Ion removed Rodea’s new tail for repairs it had needed after going out another day to look for the traveling merchant’s lost cargo.

Since it would take a little while to do all the necessary modifications to the tail, Ion of course had right away offered to install Rodea’s old tail back in. She had taken care of it and kept it in pristine condition, ready to be used by him whenever needed. Obviously she had thought that Rodea wanted to keep his ability to fly while she was fixing his new tail. If Ion knew anything about Rodea, it was that he loved flying more than anything.

But Rodea had refused to have his old tail installed back.

”I can be a day or two without a tail” he had said, and before Ion could say anything, he had left the room, just waving his hand as he walked away.

Even if he had refused, Ion couldn’t help but feel bad for him. Ever since meeting him, the mechanic had seen him almost always go anywhere through air. So many times she’d seen him soar to the skies, hearing his excited shouts far above her head as he rode the wind, enjoying the freedom of this sky he had freed from Naga’s invasion. She could tell he was truly the happiest when his feet were off the ground, and becoming part of Garuda’s endlessly blue sky as he flew among the clouds. There was nothing more pure than the happiness emitting from him during those moments. Seeing him so happy filled Ion with happiness, too.

And looking at him now sitting on the roof of her house, without the ability to fly...even if Rodea was there by his own will, Ion felt that something was amiss. Like a missing piece from a puzzle, the Rodea she saw right now in front of her felt somehow incomplete, almost...broken. Not broken like when she had found the robot buried in the sand, his right arm completely destroyed. Even if he seemed fine with the situation he was in right now, Ion noticed that his eyes that usually were so full of vigor and energy looked dull, almost...sad. Even when he smiled, his eyes somehow looked just empty.

Seeing Rodea now almost felt like looking at a bird whose wings were clipped. And that feeling made Ion sick to her stomach, because she felt like she was the one to clip Rodea’s wings. Or in this case, his tail.

”I still don’t understand why you refused” Ion said quietly, looking down at her hands and balling them into fists.

Rodea’s face fell, and he stared at his feet. There it is again, that pain. He sighed.

”Is it because of what I said when we were getting that merchant’s cargo back?” Ion asked.

Rodea raised his head, cyan eyes gazing at the girl, and she could see the worry in those eyes. ”Once we return, I’ll put back your old tail so you don’t have to stay grounded any longer...and I understand if you don’t want to have the new tail anymore.” Yes, Rodea remembered clearly what Ion had said. But…

”If I somehow made you feel I would be upset if you didn’t use my tail by using your old one again...”

”No” Rodea said suddenly, interrupting Ion. He shook his head with his eyes closed and a tiny smile on his face. ”That’s not it, not at all.”

Ion fiddled with her fingers nervously. ”Then...why?”

The robot sighed deeply, looking up at the sky. Ion patiently sat there, glancing over at him, waiting for an answer. She wasn’t in a hurry, if it was necessary for him to take a moment, she could wait. She was always there for him whenever he needed it.

After an endlessly silent moment, he finally spoke again. ”It’s...kind of complicated.”

Ion gave him a reassuring smile. ”If you want to explain, I’ll listen.”

Rodea lowered his gaze, his almost piercing icy eyes meeting Ion’s gentle blue ones. Suddenly blinking and breaking the eye contact, Rodea turned his eyes away, looking a bit embarrassed. He clearly had a hard time spitting out whatever he was holding back. But Ion continued to sit there patiently, smiling gently at him. At last, Rodea raised his shoulders up and lowered them, letting out a deep sigh, preparing himself as he suddenly turned his head to face Ion.

”...I-I like spending time with you.”

As he sputtered those words, Rodea closed his eyes and quickly looked away, hiding his face from Ion’s view again. The mechanic was dumbfounded by this sudden confession, raising her hands up slightly in confusion.

”...Uhn? W-what?” Ion was almost at loss of words, not knowing at all how to react to this. She tried to regain her composure as she noticed Rodea just looking away and burying his face into his hands, seemingly regretting what he had said. Carefully Ion reached out, placing her hand on his shoulder — the shoulder she had built for him — and trying to get his attention.

”Rodea...could you elaborate a bit more? I don’t quite follow what you mean.”

Slowly, the robot raised his face from his hands enough so Ion could see his eyes looking at her. The girl nodded at him encouragingly, prompting him to continue. Rodea lowered his hands, straightened his back while closing his eyes, and turned his face up at the sky.

”...Ever since you made me that new tail, we’ve spent time together.”

”But...don’t we always spend time together?” Ion asked in confusion, tilting her head.

Rodea opened his eyes, and turned to face Ion once more. ”Not like this. Sure, we used to hang out while you were tinkering with your machines, or you followed me around while I was flying…”

He turned his entire body around, crossing his legs and staring Ion in the eyes. The girl thought she saw something flash in his eyes.

”But ever since you made me that tail, we’ve been able to spend more time together in new ways. We’d talk while you were working on the tail. And with that tail I can carry you in the air, and take you to new places neither of us have ever been to. Or heck, even when the new tail froze while we were on that trip another day...we wouldn’t have had that snowball fight if it hadn’t.”

The memory of the snowball fight and the aftermath of it turned Rodea’s cheeks slightly red, and he scratched his face while awkwardly looking away.

”What I’m trying to say is...I’m glad you made me a new tail. Without it I wouldn’t have all these new memories. So, from the very bottom of my heart...Thank you, Ion.” As Rodea thanked Ion he placed his right fist over his chest, looking down.

That sudden outburst had left Ion completely speechless. Her brain was slowly processing all the information she’d just got from Rodea, piecing it all together, and slowly coming to a conclusion. She finally understood why he had refused to have his old tail back.

Still holding his fist over his chest and looking down, Rodea went completely silent. The weird feeling in his chest...while it did not go away, he somehow felt better now, heart aching far, far less, as there was this new fluttery feeling starting to fill the emptiness that hurt him so. And it was not a bad feeling. Closing his eyes, he tried to focus on that.

However, his eyes shot open in surprise as Ion suddenly grabbed his fist, pulling it closer to her and holding it in her hands. The robot looked unsure, not quite understanding what she was doing as he looked at her, then looking at her hands holding his hand until raising his eyes to look at her again. She just smiled at him.

”I’m also glad to have made these new memories with you. I’ll always cherish them in my heart...And I’m looking forward to make more memories together, Rodea.”

As Ion said that, she pulled his hand closer, opening it up from the fist, and put it over where her heart was, as she placed her other hand on Rodea’s chest. Recognising the familiar gesture, all the doubt and pain surrounding Rodea’s heart just vanished, and he smiled.

Looking into his eyes, Ion saw that they were now filled with their usual energy, all signs of dullness and sadness going away. As she saw his eyes returning to their usual shine, it felt like Rodea was full again, regaining the piece that was missing from him. Ion smiled. That’s the Rodea I know.

Without a need to go anywhere, the two of them just sat there until Rodea finally pulled his hand away slowly. Still sitting, he turned away, looking away at the distance. Ion did the same, staying next to him by his right side. She eventually reached out with her left hand, grabbing Rodea’s right hand and holding it, and leant her shoulder against the robot.

Rodea’s body tensed slightly as he noticed this, but relaxed as he glanced away, looking relieved. Smiling, he leant his head against the mechanic’s shoulder, tightening his grip on her hand.

It was just another beautiful, perfect day in Garuda.

Chapter Text

”Can we fly through that cloud, Rodea?”

”No.”

”Why not?!” Ion whined, looking down at him, ”I’ve seen you fly through plenty of clouds before. I know you can do it.”

”Have you ever tried looking through those goggles of yours after spraying some water on them? Because that’s what my eyes are like after flying through a cloud” Rodea answered the mechanic on his back in a dry, unamused tone, ”Clouds are just water. Actually, they are just mist, the only difference is that they don’t stay on the ground.”

Ion puffed her cheeks and looked away. ”...Killjoy. I definitely need to loosen up some screws in your head.”

”Be more careful with that attitude, or I’ll drop you right here and now.”

”Don’t you dare” Ion deadpanned, and Rodea laughed.

Ion was sitting on Rodea’s back as the two of them were high up in the sky, flying through a very cloudy area a bit away from Ion’s village. It was so cloudy that the blue sky was barely visible, almost looking like everything was wrapped in a white, fluffy blanket. Even if it was so cloudy, the weather was overall temperate with barely any wind. It had become a bit of a habit for Ion and Rodea to go out for a flight together when the winds were not that strong, althought today they had a specific destination they were heading to.

Rodea kept flying forward, passing by a cloud and avoiding to fly into it. As they circled around the cloud, Ion looked at it, suddenly noticing movement from the corner of her eye. She turned her head, staring intently into the seemingly endless white, as it looked like there was something darker in there. And sure enough, the dark spot in the white cloud got darker and darker, and Ion could see a big, shadowy figure approaching. And it definitely was not a bird.

”Whoah…!” Ion jumped, nearly falling off as she lost her grip on the robot. Rodea, also surprised by her reaction, tried to help the mechanic gain her balance while trying to keep himself straight during the flight. This was not an easy feat if you were high in the air with some weight on your back — specially when you’re trying to avoid dropping that said weight — but Rodea managed to prevent them both from falling.

After quickly regaining the balance for both of them and resuming to fly forward, the robot looked over his shoulder, giving a concerned look as he was checking the girl on his back: ”Are you okay, Ion?”

Ion swiped her hand over her forehead, relieved. ”Y-yeah, I just saw something in that cloud…”

Face turning serious, Rodea scanned around the cloud they were passing by with his eyes. It was evidently an ordinary cloud, and his eyes could not notice anything unusual about it. It was just a white cloud.

”It was probably just a bird” Rodea said, trying to reassure Ion who still seemed to be unsure about that. He looked at the cloud one more time before turning away and flying off.

”Teehee...you’re looking the wrong way, big brother!”

This time it was Rodea who nearly lost his balance, as he heard a voice that wasn’t Ion’s, and almost in panic looked quickly around to find the source of the voice. The voice just giggled.

”You’re still looking the wrong way. Here, over here!”

Ion gasped loudly. ”Up there, Rodea!”

Raising his head, Rodea’s eyes followed the direction Ion pointed at, and sure enough: just a bit above them there was another flying robot who just laughed as she seemed to be pleased with herself. Rodea’s face was filled with both surprise and repressed exasperation. He hadn’t expected to run (or really fly) into someone out there, and he wasn’t exactly pleased about bumping into her while he was out with Ion.

”Kelvis…?!”

”Well! It took you long enough to find me” the other R-Series robot looked down while giggling at her ”older brother”, ”That girl seems to have sharper eyes than you do, Rodea.”

After saying that, Kelvis flew down, adjusting her flight path to the right side of Rodea and Ion. The mechanic sitting on Rodea’s back waved her hand at the other robot, and Kelvis returned the gesture as she waved back. Rodea’s face was stale like a fish that had been a day in the sun.

”...What do you want, Kelvis?” He asked from the other robot, squinting his eyes at her.

”What, no ”hello” or anything? How rude, big brother!” Kelvis said, putting the back of her hand dramatically against her forehead, pretending to be shocked. She quickly ended the dramatics and giggled again.

Trying to hide the annoyment on his face, Rodea at least tried to be polite. ”Well...Hello, Kelvis. Now, did you want something from us?”

”Oh, not really” she said while looking at Rodea, and then raising her gaze to Ion on his back, ”I just happened to notice you flying by, and I was just curious where you two were going...together.”

It did not pass by Ion and Rodea how much Kelvis emphasised that last word. Ion, wondering what she was implying, glanced questioningly down at Rodea as he returned the look, both silently asking from each other what to do. Rodea turned his face back to the other robot. Kelvis made a mischievous smile, and for some reason Rodea had a bad feeling about where this was going.

”We’re not really going anywhere, why are you asking?” he finally answered Kelvis, trying to act as if nothing was wrong.

”Oh, no reason, no reason” she said teasingly, looking away while trying to act innocent — which she definitely wasn’t in Rodea’s opinion— and she continued: ”I’ve heard some rumors around the village, people seeing you two sneaking out when no one seems to be watching. I just find it particularly interesting to find out that these rumors were indeed true.”

Rodea wrinkled his nose. So there were rumors now, huh? It’s not like he and Ion even tried to hide their little adventures from the others, they just didn’t want to make a big deal of it. The village they lived in was pretty small, and at times it could be quite hard to have any privacy with how tight the community there was. Sometimes Rodea and Ion just wanted to have some alone time, away from the peering eyes. And even if the R-Series robots were pretty much accepted in their small community at this point, some people could still be a bit difficult about the relationships between humans and machines.

”No good can come from your obsession with the machines” was what Ion’s grandfather had said after Ion brought Rodea back home with her for the first time. And even if that old oaf had gotten better and mostly accepted Rodea and the other robots now, these matters could still create some tension when brought up with certain people.

Rodea just sighed. Why it needed to be so hard to just go out and enjoy flying with your best friend. There shouldn’t be anything wrong about that.

Ion had been sitting there quietly for a bit, but she finally spoke up: ”I don’t see how that concerns you, Kelvis. Rodea and I just go out for flights, there’s nothing unusual about that.”

”Ion! Shhh!” The robot rushed to hiss at the girl on his back. Ion was confused by this, not understanding what was so bad about what she had just said. Kelvis looked amused by this.

”What, you don’t want to talk about it more in detail, Rodea?” she teased as she was waving her hand, ”But big brother, there really isn’t anything unusual about it, and you should remember that...if you really have your memories back, that is.”

Now Ion’s curiosity peaked at the odd remark Kelvis had just made. ”What do you mean?”

”Well, I’m glad you asked!” Kelvis said, doing a small twirl in the air, ”As you probably remember, Rodea, you used to sneak out like this all the time with princess Cecilia— ”

But before Kelvis could finish what she was saying, Rodea just suddenly boosted in the air, quickly leaving the other robot far behind. While Kelvis was an advanced model compared to Rodea and her basic flying abilities were superior to his, the tail Ion had built for Rodea allowed him to easily outspeed the other robot, even while carrying the girl on his back.

Ion yelped in surprise as Rodea had suddenly boosted himself without a warning, trying to hang on to him so she wouldn’t fall off. Rodea headed towards a cloud, entering the white, humid mass as he kept boosting more and more, trying to gain more speed. He suddenly did a steep turn inside the cloud, making sure he’d get Kelvis off his tracks in case she had followed them. Soon enough they emerged from the cloud and Rodea looked behind him, still seeing small white trails from the cloud connecting to his tail. No sign of Kelvis. Good.

After slowing down and evening out his flight, Ion let out a relieved sigh, and Rodea suddenly remembered that she was there, too. He was so caught up on getting away from Kelvis that he had almost forgot her weight on his back.

”Geez...please give me a warning or something next time, Rodea!” the mechanic’s voice behind his back sounded upset.

”Sorry…” Rodea apologised quietly, looking away in shame.

Neither of them said anything for a moment as Rodea resumed to fly directly forward, passing by a few clouds.

”Hey, Rodea…? What was all that with Kelvis about?” Ion suddenly asked, breaking the silence between them, ”She said some...weird things…”

”Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing” the robot quickly answered while looking forward so Ion couldn’t see his face, ”She’s just annoying on purpose sometimes, trying to get under my skin. I guess it’s just a ”little sister” thing.”

Ion only hummed in response. But still...she couldn’t help but notice that the instant Kelvis had brought up princess Cecilia, Rodea got suddenly so worked up, so much so that he had to escape the entire situation.

Princess Cecilia...Ion had heard so little about her. Of course she knew how much the princess had meant to Rodea. Ion had once asked about Cecilia, and Rodea told her about how the princess gave the robot his name: ”Ro” from R0, his serial number, and ”dea” from the word ”dear”. It was a good and fitting name, clearly holding a great significance to Rodea.

But aside from that, Ion barely knew anything else about Cecilia. About her life, her time spent with Rodea or details of their relationship...Ion really knew nothing. All Ion really knew was that she apparently looked a lot like Cecilia, which had helped Rodea to regain his lost memories. But…

While continuing the flight as they were surrounded by the clouds, Rodea noticed Ion being awfully quiet as she was getting lost in her thoughts. Worried, he raised his head to look at her...and then he was hit by with an idea.

”Hey, Ion?”

”...Huh?”

”It’ll still take some time until we’re there” Rodea said, looking at Ion over his shoulder, eyes filled with an emotion Ion couldn’t quite read, ”What do you say if we make the rest of the flight a bit more interesting?”

Ion leant closer to the robot. ”More interesting? What do you mean?”

He gave her a confident smile. ”How do you feel about doing some aerial tricks?”

”Wait, what?” the girl looked shocked, ”But...won’t I fall off?”

”Not if you hang on tight!” Rodea laughed.

Ion had to stop to think for a moment. Now that she was thinking about it, flying with her on his back must’ve been very boring to Rodea. He had to fly so straight and carefully, making sure she wouldn’t fall. The mechanic had seen Rodea doing some quite impressive aerial maneuvers when he was flying alone, and his excited shouts while doing so made her believe he really loved it.

And she would be lying if she said it hadn’t crossed her mind to try out something a bit more...extreme while flying with Rodea.

Ion’s face looked worried, and Rodea’s smile fell as he got serious. ”Don’t worry. Even if you fall, I will surely catch you. It’s a promise.”

She smiled at Rodea. Even if he had just earlier threatened playfully to drop her, she knew that he would never let her fall. She trusted him.

Ion gave Rodea a nod, and he smiled at her again, eyes shining from the excitement. She pulled herself closer, wrapping her arms around his neck. Rodea shrugged his shoulders as he tightened his grip around Ion’s legs.

”...Are you ready?”

”Uhhuh!”

”Then...here we GOOO!”

Ion’s entire body jerked at the sudden movement hitting her as they speeded up. Rodea’s flight path quickly curved up, as he rapidly gained more altitude. Clouds passed by so fast they turned into a white blur in Ion’s eyes, and after flying through a cloud they soon came out of the white mass, suddenly surrounded by a blue sky.

But Ion didn’t have time to marvel at the scenery over the clouds, as Rodea began flying in big circles, going up and down, occasionally going in a cloud and getting out of it.

”YAHHOO!” his excited shout rung in Ion’s ears as she tried to keep her face up, looking where they were flying.

Rodea stopped making circles as he slowed down until completely halting his movement, and he hovered for a bit above the clouds before letting himself to fall down. Suddenly being hit by the gravity took Ion by surprise as they fell through a cloud below them. The feeling of freely falling from such heights was terrifying at first, and for a moment the mechanic was scared that his tail had malfunctioned from the overexertion. She pulled herself even closer to Rodea, nearly getting her face in his hair as she was trying to keep her grip on him.

However, Rodea turned to look at her with a smile on his face that was filled with pure, unfiltered happiness. Ion had never seem such an innocent and sincere emotion from him before. The edges of her mouth turned up from that contagious smile, and she suddenly felt almost weightless as they kept falling inside the cloud. The girl could see the cyan parts on the robot’s body glow faintly as the cloud shrouded them both so tightly it almost got dark. Soon Ion could only see Rodea’s glowing eyes, as they kept looking at her as she stared back at them, and the white thickness covered the two fallers completely.

After what felt like an eternity, they exited the cloud by falling out of it. Rodea finally put an end to the fall and resumed the flight with a powerful boost, using the momentum of the fall to gain more altitude as he did a long curve to move up, flying through a cloud again. While making their way up, he suddenly spun his body, making Ion shriek a bit, and as they emerged from the cloud they were again in the blue sky.

Slowly shifting up in upright position, Rodea’s flight evened out, and he resumed flying straight.

”Ion?”

The girl gasped suddenly, not even noticing she was holding her breath for a moment. Only now after that thrilling moment was over and their flight steadied down, she noticed how fast her heart was racing in her chest. She was still holding her arms around Rodea’s neck, calming down her breaths as her face was almost buried in the robot’s messy hair.

”...Yeah?”

Ion felt Rodea’s shoulders shift around a bit as his head moved slightly. ”How was that?”

Carefully, Ion finally released her grip around Rodea’s neck, pushing herself away to sit up. Looking ahead she could see that they were above the clouds, endless white mass continuing to the horizon. Over that mass was the bright, blue sky, so clean and pure out of any imperfections. And there they were, a mechanic and a robot, flying forward over this infinite sea of clouds.

As Ion’s heartbeats settled to their regular rhythm, she released her hands from Rodea’s shoulders, raising them above her head while balling them into fists.

”That was..AMAZING!”

Chapter Text

”There it is!”

Ion perked up as Rodea suddenly shouted, and she looked ahead. She could see a thick layer of clouds in front of her breaking up, and behind them showed up an island. The island was clearly an old grove, with giant, ancient-looking trees growing as a thick forest.

Ion was sitting on Rodea’s back as he flew towards the island, but he did not land yet. He kept his altitude as he flew over the island, slowly curving above the forest as if looking for something. Rodea nudged his shoulders to get attention from Ion.

”Do you see it?” He asked her, looking up at the mechanic. He saw Ion picking up a tiny, portable telescope from her pocket, and pulling the goggles off her eyes to look through it. With a pensive look on her face she observed the island with the telescope as Rodea kept circling over the forest and looked around. Suddenly, Ion let out a gasp.

”There!” she put down the telescope and leant against the robot’s back, extending her right arm next to his head and pointed down. Rodea’s eyes followed the direction she was pointing at, and there it was: between some old trees was a small opening, and from that opening they could see a giant, unnatural formation under a thick layer of green moss.

It looked like an old artillery.

Just a few days ago during one of his solo flights Rodea had found this island, and while flying over it he had seen the moss-covered artillery in the forest. After returning home and telling Ion about his findings, they had decided to go out and investigate the place on a day when the weather was good enough — the island was quite ways away from the village, and the thick forest did not allow the Ion Wave to land on it. And since there were no other islands nearby big enough to land on either, it meant that Rodea had to carry Ion there himself. Even if is this would the longest flying trip they did together, Rodea was sure he could carry Ion all way to the island.

”I trust this tail you made me. There haven’t been any problems with it lately, anyway” he had said. Still, Ion had insisted doing some checkups on the tail, making sure it wouldn’t break or malfunction during the long flight. After a few days of checkups and waiting for perfect weather for the flight, they had decided today was the day.

Approaching the opening where the artillery was, avoiding to hit any branches Rodea and Ion descended in the forest as the trees surrounded them. Slowing down his movement, Rodea landed as gently as he could on the ground at the bottom of the forest, completely filled with moss and small plants that could thrive in the dim light coming down between the tree branches.

As he made sure the ground they were standing on was safe, Rodea let Ion climb off his back. As she hopped down and stood up, she groaned loudly.

”Everything okay?” Rodea asked, sounding slightly concerned.

”Yeah...my butt is just sore from sitting for so long” Ion stretched her back and let out another groan, ”Hey, what would you say if I put a saddle or something on you next time? It’d make long trips like this far more comfortable.”

The robot narrowed his eyes, not looking amused at all. ”...No thanks.”

”Aww.”

Turning around to look at the old, moss-covered machinery they landed next to, Rodea’s face was contemplative.

”What can you make out of this?” he asked Ion, crossing his arms and waving his tail in the air while still keeping his eyes on the old weaponry, looking up and down at it.

”Hmm…” Ion walked up to the artillery, and put her hand over the mossy surface, ”Well, for starters, it must be old. Like, really old. And it definitely originates from Naga, as you suspected.”

Rodea’s head nodded slightly and he looked at Ion who moved her hand around the surface of the machine as she inspected it. She grabbed some moss, removing it and brushed the now moss-free spot with her fingers.

”Hmm…” lost in her thoughts, Ion looked around the area and suddenly pointed something with her finger. ”See those rocks over there?”

Rodea turned in the direction she pointed at, and indeed, he saw some oddly retangular rocks that were also covered in moss next to some nearby trees. The tree roots were growing over them.

”Those look like the foundation of a building. Which means…” she stepped away from the artillery and looked up at it, ”This most likely was a military base once, a long time ago. Not only it would take a long time to have moss grow over everything like this, but…”

Ion turned around and gestured to the area around them, and Rodea’s eyes followed her movements attentively. ”Look at these trees. For a tree to grow as big as these, it must’ve taken at least hundreds of years. These trees have been here for a very, very long time, and their roots are covering the ruins here.”

Ion looked back to Rodea who questioningly raised a brow at her.

”...if I had to say, these weapons and ruins must originate from your time, Rodea. Back when Naga first tried to invade Garuda.”

Rodea nodded. Just as I thought.

They stood there for a moment, just looking at the moss-covered artillery. The sheer size of them was almost awe-worthy, but as they were there, completely taken over by nature…

Even if Naga had been so far advanced in technology compared to Garuda, even their inventions couldn’t stand the flow of time. As time passed on, all signs of them even existing would slowly fade away as nature takes back what is it’s own. Such was the way of Garuda, the land in the sky that was so pure and clean, just like the endlessly blue sky it was located in.

And honestly, Rodea preferred it that way.

Suddenly Ion moved, walking towards the artillery again, and circled around it while inspecting it.

”H-hey…!” Rodea jumped and went after her, ”Be careful! There’s no way to tell if there are traps or something around here. This is an old military base, after all!”

”Come on, relax” Ion said nonchalantly, ”I already said that this place is probably 1,000 years old. There’s no way anything Naga invented can work for that long.”

Rodea stopped on his tracks and his tail dropped down, landing on some plants growing from the ground. ”...Well, I did.”

Ion turned around to face him with a surprised look on her face. ”Oh…! I mean, you’re not like the other machines Naga made. You were part of a series of robots built for a special purpose, right? You’re far more durable than these regular machines.”

”Regular machines”, huh. So what does that make me, then? ”Just” a machine?

”...I was buried in sand for 1,000 years with my arm broken, Ion. Not any old machine can do that.”

”Yeah, I know!” Ion sounded amused, ”When I hauled you up, you wouldn’t believe how much dirt and muck there was on you! It took me a while to clean you up and empty you out of all the sand that had gotten in you. It’s almost a miracle that I was able to even boot you up!”

Ion laughed, and Rodea just turned his head away and glanced down to the ground, seeing only moss and plants around his feet.

Hrmh. You really are a mechanic, through and through. Always thinking about machines and how they work...but I am not an emotionless machine. I have a heart, like you do. And while you do say that all machines have hearts... what exactly do you mean by that?

Not saying anything, Rodea’s eyes followed Ion for a moment as she walked among the ruins and artillery, looking around curiously and occasionally pausing to inspect anything that caught her eye. As the mechanic kneeled down to look at something she had found, she suddenly looked like she had remembered something. Letting out a small gasp, she turned her face in Rodea’s direction. Arms crossed, the robot raised an eyebrow in question as his tail ficked around.

”Oh, right...do you mind if I look around for a bit?” she asked, ”Even if this stuff is old, I might find something interesting! Maybe even new machine parts I could use if lucky...”

Rodea’s shoulders dropped a bit as he sighed, tilting his head. ”Gonna take a while, huh?”

”Yeah, I hope you won’t mind.”

Rodea closed his eyes while smiling a bit. ”Well, in that case it probably won’t hurt if I scout around the island for a bit. Call me if you need anything, okay?”

Ion raised one of her hands to give him thumbs up and showed him the portable Ionceiver in her other hand. He smiled and nodded to her, and with that, Rodea leapt in the air and flew off. His figure quickly disappeared from Ion’s view behind the tree branches that covered the sky above her, and she resumed inspecting the old Naga ruins.

———————

The forest was really quiet. The trees were growing so close together that the wind really did not blow in there, and the only noises were the topmost tree branches occasionally rustling in the wind and some birds singing far away in the distance. It was eerily quiet, almost unnatural.

Sitting on a giant moss-covered tree root near the ruins, Ion was taking a break. She had been investigating the place for a while now, and as she was suddenly hit by the fact that she’d been thirsty, she decided to sit down for a moment to quell her thirst.

As she drank some water from a bottle she had brought with her, Ion observed the area. The forest was so dense that you could barely see anything what was down there when you were in the air, and while you were down in the forest very little light came through the tree leaves. Despite the darkness of the place many plants still grew in there, making it very green and beautiful in the filtered light that was coming down from above.

Ion was drinking the last bits of water from her bottle when she heard a slightly mechanical voice as the tree branches above her rustled a bit, and she saw Rodea flying down. He’d been out scouting the area for a while now, and he hadn’t contacted Ion at all during that time.

”Well? Did you find anything?” the mechanic asked as Rodea landed to the ground near the root she was sitting on. He looked away as if there was something on his mind.

”Nothing particularly interesting…” the robot said aloofly, ”What about you?”

”Same here. This place is a bust, everything here is too old and worn out to be used for anything anynome…” Ion replied, shaking the water bottle in her hand upside down. Rodea took a note of this.

”...Did you run out of water?”

”Yeah, I guess I have to go for the rest of this trip without water” Ion said while putting the cork back to the bottle. Rodea’s face suddenly lit up in a smile.

”If it is water you need…” he glanced over his shoulder as his tail was swiping over some plants around his feet, ”I actually found a small pond not too far from here. The water looked pretty clear from the air, you can probably fill your bottle there. I can take you there pretty quickly.”

”Oh, cool!” Ion sounded excited as she stood up and jumped down from the root, landing next to Rodea, ”I am pretty much done here anyway, so I guess we can go and take a look. Let’s go, Rodea!”

Expecting Rodea to let her climb on his back, Ion was surprised as he without a warning nearly lunged at her, wrapping his arms around her waist and lifting her up. Before she could even react, the robot had launched himself in the air, carrying the mechanic with him.

”Whoah! Wait, Rodea…!” Ion clung on to Rodea, crossing her arms around his neck while trying to hold herself up as they flew over the forest. She buried her face in the robot’s shoulder while hanging for her dear life.

But as the initial surprise faded away a bit and Rodea’s flight leveled out, Ion allowed herself to look down. Giant trees below them just passed by as they flew over them.

A new kind of feeling filled Ion. It was a weird feeling. She had flew with Rodea many times by now, but it was always by sitting on his back. He had never carried her in his arms. Not that she doubted the strength of those arms — especially the right arm she built — but as she was there, nothing else between her and the trees below her, it was kind of scary.

But still, it was oddly freeing as well. As they flew there, it felt like Ion had grown a pair of wings herself, and was now flying freely in the sky. Her mind felt light, nearly weightless, and it was almost like she was floating up without any boundaries, as if she was freed from the gravity.

But then her mind fell back to the reality as the gravity hit her hard when Rodea suddenly zoomed down.

Letting out a shriek, Ion clung on to him harder as the trees came closer really fast, nearly hitting her — and then there was grass in front of her.

When she raised her head up, Ion realised she was on the ground again. Her legs had gone completely limp from the shock and they hung over the grass under her. The only thing keeping her up was her arms still wrapped around Rodea’s neck, and his arms that were still holding her up around her waist.

Looking around, Ion saw they were in an open area in the middle of the forest. There were some rocks, and a cliff with a waterfall that endlessly poured water to a clear pond. Some grass grew on the ground, as this small open area had much more light than the other parts of the forest.

Ion suddenly felt Rodea raising his shoulders as he improved his hold on her. As she looked up to him, she saw him patiently staring at her.

”Can you stand, or do you need help?” The tone of Rodea’s voice was surprisingly gentle.

Realising how long they had been there just holding each other, Ion suddenly felt slightly embarrassed. She looked down, avoiding Rodea’s gaze.

”...You can let me go now.”

Rodea did as she said, and slowly released his grip on her, and the girl slumped down to the ground on her knees. Hovering over her while trying to check if she was alright, the robot was surprised by Ion suddenly bumping her fist against his left arm.

”...That was for nearly giving me a heart attack. What the heck even made you to do something stupid like that?”

Rodea let his shoulders fall as he let out a relieved chuckle. ”Haha...sorry. You complained earlier about how sore you were by sitting on my back, so I thought I’d try something different.”

”Geez...you could have just asked first, jerk.”

She punched his left arm again, and Rodea pretended to be hurt by it as he laughed awkwardly. Ion tried to be mad at him, but as he looked at her with a silly smile on his face, her act fell apart. A small giggle got out of her, slowly turning into genuine laughter. Rodea snickered, and joined to laugh with Ion.

After the mechanic’s laughing stopped, the robot offered his right hand to her, and as she accepted it he pulled her back on her feet. As Ion wobbly regained her balance and stood up, she gave Rodea another quick love tap on his left shoulder. He just laughed as he was pretending to run away from her.

Ignoring Rodea for now, Ion took another look at the pond they had arrived to. The water in it was so pure and clean, reflecting the blue sky above perfectly on the surface. But as Ion looked closer, she could see it getting much darker below the surface, as the pond seemed to be very deep. The waterfall next to the pond must have carved it over the time.

Walking up to the pond, Ion kneeled down by the edge of it and dipped her hand in the water.

”...Oh!”

Standing behind her, Rodea leant a bit to his right to see around Ion, looking curious. ”What is it?”

”Oh, this water is perfect!” she said as she was filling her bottle. Rodea was slightly confused, not quite understanding why she sounded so excited.

”...The water is quite clean, yes.”

”I mean, yes, but that’s not what I meant” Ion got up and closed the bottle in her hands, ”The water here isn’t too hot or too cold, it’d be perfect for swimming. Actually…!”

Rodea was perplexed by Ion suddenly taking off her shoes.

”...What are you doing?”

”Oh! Sorry, I was just thinking…” Ion brushed her fingers gently over her chin, ”Even here in Garuda, it’s not every day you find such good water. I was thinking about taking a quick dip...is that okay to you?”

Rodea looked up in the sky, observing the position of the sun. It was well past noon, but there would be still plenty of daylight left for that day. Even if the trip back home was long, they could afford some time to relax and have fun before heading back.

”...Sure, we’re not in a hurry, anyway” Rodea finally answered.

Ion flashed him a sweet smile. ”Thanks!”

Expecting her to just walk around in the water with her shoes off, Rodea was caught completely off-guard when Ion started taking off the rest of her clothes.

”Wha...Ion, what are you…?!” he shook his hands in front of him and he turned his head around nervously, not sure where to look.

As Ion took off her suit and threw it to the ground, she turned around to face Rodea...while she suddenly had a blue swimsuit on.

”...Huhn?” Rodea just stood there, totally flabbergasted. His arms flopped down and they hung motionless. He tried to say something, but no words could come out of his mouth. He had not expected this, not at all. Ion noticed this and laughed.

”Haha, did I caught you by surprise?” she asked, sounding amused.

Rodea shook his head and straightened his back as he tried to regain whatever there was left of his composure. Which, frankly, wasn’t much considering how flustered his face was.

”...D-do you always wear a swimsuit under your regular clothes...?”

”I’m always prepared!” Ion giggled and winked at Rodea, ”You never know when you could find a perfect swimming spot!”

”That’s...an oddly specific thing to be prepared for.”

”Oh, shut up.”

After that Ion walked back to the pond and dived in the water. Rodea watched curiously as her figure disappeared under the surface, and after a few seconds her head popped out of the water. Swimming in place, she turned around to face the robot who was standing by the edge of the pond.

”I didn’t actually know you could swim, Ion” Rodea told her, bending down while leaning his hands on his knees.

”Yeah! Remember that pond near grandpa’s house?” Ion asked, and Rodea nodded as he indeed did recall the place she was talking about, ”When I was little and grandma was still around, she used to take me there and taught me how to swim. I kinda stopped going there after she passed away, but I still like swimming!”

Rode listened to Ion intently, and watched as she did a small leap in the water and swam around the pond. He stood there for a moment, tail swinging around mindlessly as his eyes kept following her figure in the water. After a moment he looked around the area and spotted a rock near him. Rodea walked to the rock and sat there, holding his knees against his chest as he was on the watch over Ion and any possible threats in the area.

As Ion kept swimming, Rodea just observed the area around the pond while occasionally glancing in Ion’s direction awkwardly. Burrowing his face in his arms as he folded them over his knees, Rodea still vigilantly kept an eye on the mechanic while getting lost in his thoughts.

Even after all this time we’ve spent together, Ion sure finds new ways to surprise me. Seriously, she’s got no shame sometimes...I wonder if she would have done that if instead of me there had been another human around?

After swimming a couple laps around the pond, Ion got out of the water. Rodea raised his head while she was shaking water off herself.

”Shoot, I didn’t bring a towel with me” she was clearly dripping wet, ”Do you mind if I dry myself in the sun for a bit?”

Rodea flicked his tail around and rolled his eyes. ”...Go ahead.”

Giving him a tiny smile, Ion sat down on the same rock Rodea was also sitting on. The small opening in the forest around the pond was big enough to have plenty of sunlight in there, and it got noticeably warmer as they kept sitting there in the sun.

Falling silent to listen to the waterfall rushing water down to the pond, Ion and Rodea just sat there for a while. They did not look at each other. Ion was taking in the serenity of this place as she just smiled while Rodea was eyeing the area. Occasionally he quickly threw a look in Ion’s direction before turning his eyes away, trying to not look at her for too long for her to notice.

After some time Ion got up and started to dress up. Rodea’s body visibly relaxed while he was still sitting, looking up at her. He moved his arms to his sides and splayed his legs.

”Are you ready to go?” he asked the mechanic as she put on her shoes.

”Hmmm...can we still wait for a bit?” Ion pulled her goggles down to hang around from her neck, ”My hair isn’t still completely dry yet, and it can get pretty cold up there with the wind. Besides, I wanna check your tail before we leave, just to make sure there’s nothing wrong with it.”

Rodea threw his head back and shrugged. ”Sure, I can wait.”

Instead of sitting next to him, Ion walked behind Rodea and sat down while leaning her back against him. The mechanic picked up the tip of his tail and placed it in her lap as she began to check on it.

They sat there for a moment, back to back. After a little while Ion felt Rodea shifting around a bit.

”...Seriously, Ion, my tail should be alright. It’s been working just fine this entire time.”

”Better safe than sorry! I am not going to take any risks during the flight back when our lives depend on it” Ion glanced over her shoulder in Rodea’s direction, ”Besides, you really put the tail through some extra stress while doing those flying tricks earlier.”

Rodea smiled absentmindedly as he remembered the aerial acrobatics he had performed earlier when he and Ion were on their way to the island.

”...Hey, I asked for your permission, and you agreed to it” the robot turned his head slightly in the direction of the mechanic who was still sitting against his back, ”And judging by how ecstatic you were afterwards, I believe you enjoyed it as well.”

Rodea noticed Ion hitting his side with her elbow.

”Shush you. My point still stands.”

”But you still enjoyed it, didn’t you?” Rodea peered over to see Ion, ”We can do it again on our way back. We might be able to even catch the sunset above the clouds! It’s a real sight to see, believe me. I know you’ll love it.”

While still looking at Rodea’s tail in her lap, Ion’s mouth turned up in a small smile. ”...We’ll see.”

Rodea grinned. ”That wasn’t a ”no”!”

As Rodea let out a laugh and shifted his sitting position to lean more against Ion, she went silent for a moment. The robot hadn’t noticed that she wasn’t checking on his tail anymore. As their discussion went back to what happened during their journey to the island...Ion thoughts returned to what she had been thinking about after meeting Kelvis earlier that day.

She raised her shoulders and took a deep breath.

”Hey, Rodea? Can I ask you something?”

”Sure, shoot away.”

His voice sounded to carefree that it nearly made Ion back off from asking what was on her mind, but she still went for it.

”...Did princess Cecilia know how to swim?”

Rodea blinked in surprise. What is it with everyone talking about princess Cecilia today?

Ion could feel his body going rigid. Rodea turned his head around a little in Ion’s direction before turning back to face forward, slightly untensing his shoulders.

”...Yeah, she did. She used to have a swimming pool in her private garden, and I was always on watch while she was swimming there. She used to swim there more when she was younger, as her duties as a princess got more imperative as she grew older.”

”Hmmmh” Ion hummed. ”So you used to keep an eye on her while she was swimming? Like you did when I was swimming just now?”

...She noticed I was watching her? ”Yeah, pretty much.”

They were silent for a moment, and then Ion spoke again.

”...Rodea?”

”What is it?”

”Do you see me as princess Cecilia?”

”...What?!”

The tail was pulled out of Ion’s lap and she nearly fell backwards as the robot she’d been leaning against suddenly moved away from her, turning his body completely around to face the mechanic. Ion did the same, and they sat there, face to face. As Ion looked at him, she could see that Rodea’s face was completely filled with bewilderment from her question.

”What...why are you even asking such a thing, Ion?”

”Well...I’ve been thinking about it for a while” Ion looked down and placed a finger on her chin, ”I know I look a lot like her, because that’s how you got your memories back. And then Kelvis said that you used to sneak out with her like we do, and I was thinking...you seem to treat me like princess Cecilia.”

”We’re not sneaking out—! Urgh, no...that’s…” Rodea closed his eyes and pinched his nose, trying to collect his thoughts. Ion sat there, staring at him and waiting for his answer.

The robot lowered his hand from his face, eyes still closed.

”...I don’t see you as princess Cecilia, not at all.”

”But—!”

”Ion.”

Whatever Ion was going to say just disappeared from her mind by the sheer intensity of Rodea’s voice. It was so calm, but held so much force behind it. Rodea opened his eyes, and they were like a sea before the storm.

”I mean...you two have similar faces. But in terms of personality...Cecilia could be a bit difficult at times, but deep down she was really sweet and gentle. You, on the other hand...you’re quite the opposite.” Rodea let out a tiny chuckle, allowing himself to relax a bit. Ion looked nearly offended by his implications that she was a lot of trouble. Turning back to serious, Rodea continued:

”Cecilia was my princess. I was her assigned bodyguard, it was my mission to look after her and keep her safe. And even though our relationship went far beyond that as we spent time together, and she became very important to me...in the end, there was a power imbalance between us.”

Ion unconsciously leant closer to Rodea even though they were already so close they nearly touched each other. ”Power imbalance?”

Rodea nodded slowly. ”Right. She was my princess, after all. If she ever told me to do something, I had to do it. Even if it...hurt.”

Rodea’s brows burrowed when he closed his eyes again. He looked to be in pain, and he clutched his right arm. Ion might have not known the details of how or why his right arm was destroyed, but it was very clear to her it somehow was related to princess Cecilia. She could always ask about it from him later, but that definitely was an emotional baggage to unpack for another time.

Letting out a deep sigh and releasing his grip on his right arm, Rodea spoke again.

”But you, Ion...you’re different to me.”

Ion leant back, sitting now straight. ”...Different how?”

Rodea looked down at his right hand as he flexed his fingers, trying to find the right words. ”...You built me my arm, which is very strong and reliable. You built me a new tail that lets me fly more freely. You’re always there to fix me when needed. You’ve given me so much, even when I don’t ask for it.”

He paused for a moment, and then raised his head as he looked Ion in the eyes.

”Sometimes my head gets so lost in the clouds that I need something to bring me down back to reality. And you do exactly that. You’re not trying to restrict me, but you also give me the limits I need. You keep me grounded, in a good way.”

A smile started to spread across Rodea’s face without him even realising it, and his tail waved around.

”You’re neither below or above me, you and I are in balance. You are...my equal. And that’s what I like about you.”

For a few seconds they just stared at each other. Ion’s entire body just swayed backwards as her brain was trying to process the confession she’d just got from him. ”That’s what I like about you”.

He likes me. Rodea likes me.

The smile on Rodea’s face vanished and he leant away from Ion. His face was suddenly filled with discontent as his eyes looked down.

”Well...now you know how I feel about you.” His voice sounded almost like a deep sigh. ”And since I answered your question...it would be only fair if you answered mine, Ion.”

Him directly addressing her by name returned Ion from her thoughts, and she jumped slightly. ”Wh...what is your question, Rodea?”

”I’ve been also thinking about something for a while. And today I’ve been thinking about it more than before…”

Rodea’s eyes met Ion’s. His eyes were so piercing, and it was like they were trying to find answers from deep within her heart as they kept staring her.

”Ion...you always say that every machine has a heart. And I’m not sure what you mean by that.”

Ion blinked. ”...Whah?”

Rodea placed the palm of his right hand on his chest. ”I’m not like other machines. Me, and the other R-Series units...we have a heart. A heart that allows us to feel, like you do. And not just any machine has that. So, Ion…”

His hand balled into a fist, and he punched it against his chest as he looked directly in Ion’s eyes.

”Am I just like any other machine to you?”

Silence. The sound of the waterfall crashing down to the bond next to them suddenly felt so overwhelming, as the roaring noise took over Rodea’s mind little by little. Those few seconds of him and Ion staying quiet felt so defeating to him, and he was almost afraid to hear what the mechanic was thinking right now.

”...Is that what’s been on your mind, Rodea?”

Her voice was so quiet he barely heard it over the rushing water. Rodea’s body untensed slightly as the tension from the silence went away a little, and he could only muster a small nod in response.

Ion looked down at her hands in her lap. ”Rodea...I say that every machine has a heart because when someone builds a machine, they put their heart and creativity to it. The machine receives a part of that heart, and it becomes its own. Therefore, every machine has a heart.”

She fiddled around with her fingers before continuing.

”But you’re right, your heart is different. You get happy, angry, sad...you react differently to different situations depending on your feelings. I’ve seen you grow, even if you still have a short fuse sometimes…” She said that last thing almost with a giggle, and Rodea raised a brow. I am not that short-tempered...am I?

Ion finally raised her gaze from her lap to look at Rodea again.

”Rodea...you are your own person. A person with a kind heart, always ready to help others. Metal or flesh, it doesn’t matter what your body is made of. You have a heart that makes you, well, you. And I like the person you are. I like...you.”

Oh.

...Oh!

As the magnitude of Ion’s words hit him, Rodea’s eyes widened and he raised his arms in surprise. The sound of the waterfall felt so distant in his ears as his mind tried to process all of this.

”So you do…?”

”...Uhhuh.”

”So does that mean we both…?”

”...Seems like it.”

Even after their feelings were said out loud, neither of them were sure how to proceed. Speaking felt so impossibly hard and awkward. Not being able to look directly at each other, they just sat there in silence for a moment without moving anywhere.

Not until Rodea suddenly got up on his knees, reaching Ion’s height as she was sitting there, and opening his arms. He looked at her with a gentle smile.

”...may I?”

The edges of Ion’s mouth turned up, and her entire being beamed at him. She nodded enthusiastically as she opened her arms, allowing Rodea to lean against her and put his arms around her. Ion returned the embrace as her arms wrapped around his abdomen, pulling him deeper into the hug.

This wasn’t the first they had hugged, but this definitely was different from the other times they’d done so. Neither of them showed any signs of wanting to let go as their embrace deepened. Rodea’s face was buried in Ion’s shoulder, and Ion let her hand run through the messy hair on the back of Rodea’s head. As they just sat there in a hug, Rodea curled his tail around the two of them, almost like creating a small protective bubble where only they existed.

And so, their hearts had finally found each other.

Chapter Text

”...Well? How did it go?”

Rodea was sitting in the shadow of a tree next to Ion’s house. He was watching the village down from the hill with his legs folded against him and the tail curled around his body. It was a very beautiful and sunny day, and since it was really warm in the sun the robot had resorted to sit in the shadow to avoid his system from heating up too much.

As he heard the voice speaking to him, Rodea lifted his head up to see a pair of eyes — one blue and one golden — staring at him from between the leaves in the tree.

”Hi, Kelvis.”

Kelvis popped out of a small bush of leaves as she hung upside down, her tail anchored to the tree to prevent her from falling. A lean smile spread across her face as she stared at Rodea. ”...Well?”

Rodea was completely unfazed by Kelvis who was hanging upside down above him. ”What?”

”Come on, big brother! You know what I’m talking about!” Kelvis exclaimed and spun around, ”Your day with the mechanic girl yesterday! How did it go?”

Rodea leant his body back a bit back with his hands on the ground and just closed his eyes as he turned away, seemingly unimpressed by Kelvis’ question.

”...I have no idea what you’re talking about, Kelvis.”

”Oh pleaaase” Kelvis said dramatically, ”We met yesterday when you two were flying off somewhere, and Rylus told me he saw you return after it was already dark. Suuurely you didn’t just fly around the entire day! Come on, what you two were up to?”

She swayed closer to Rodea who opened his eyes to look at her. He was still completely unfaltered by her accusations.

”What if we just flew around the entire day?” he asked while smirking at Kelvis.

The other robot narrowed her eyes at Rodea who just stared back. His icy eyes did not budge even a bit. After a moment Kelvis turned her eyes away as she pouted. ”...Psah. You’re no fun.”

Kelvis dropped herself from the tree, but before hitting the ground she put a stop to her fall by launching in the air and flying away. Before leaving she halted mid-air and turned around to face Rodea one more time.

”And here I thought I was witnessing history being made with a human and a machine...bah, nevermind.” And with that, Kelvis flew off, leaving Rodea alone under the tree.

The robot tossed his head back and rolled his eyes. A human and a machine, huh?

He let out a relieved sigh as he threw himself down in the grass. A human and a machine...Rodea grinned. What a funny thought that still is. Only if Kelvis knew...

Rodea hadn’t exactly lied to Kelvis, no. He just didn’t tell her everything.

It’s kind of funny when you think about it. Rodea looked at his tail — the tail Ion had built for him. It all started when she made me this. And here we are now.

He and Ion had talked. A lot. And after a long talk they’d come to an agreement of how to proceed with everything from now on. Both of them agreed to take this slowly, not wanting to rush anything. They still needed time to figure out some things, as this was all new and foreign for both Rodea and Ion. There were many things they did not know how to do, but one thing was sure: they were in this together, and they would be there for each other.

And maybe, at some point when they had things more figured out and they were ready, they would tell the others. But as things were now, both Ion and Rodea were happy to keep this to themselves for now. It was our little secret.

Rodea smiled at the thought. Our little secret. Us. It wasn’t just him anymore. It was both him and Ion now. Thinking about this was so thrilling, almost giving him a feeling of heart skipping a beat. It was just all so new and exciting. And while the future was always uncertain with potentially many hardships waiting for them...

”...Rodea!”

”Coming!”

...they would see this new tale unfold, together.