KISMET ─ vento aureo.

▹ THIRTY-TWO ;

☆ ⁺ « STILL A SPACE FOR HIM

★˚⋆ HE'S LIKE SOME KIND OF OLD, eye-patch Sleeping Beauty."

You just managed to catch yourself from slapping Narancia upside the head. Mista snorted. Fugo sighed from where he was bent over the healing pod console.

"Is he going to be alright?" Bruno asked, hovering by the foot of the healing pod.

"Should be," Fugo murmured. "He was only hit with a tranquilizer dart. Whoever shot him didn't want him dead."

"He was still shot, though," Abbacchio pointed out.

"It's likely they just wanted to incapacitate him to get the Stand Arrow. They probably needed him to tell them what to do."

Polnareff was currently in one of your ship's healing pods, an oxygen mask over his face. You were glad he hadn't keeled over dead back on the ferry. You were on the last leg of the job. You couldn't afford for anything to go wrong.

Arrangements had been made with Zero. He had been neither glad nor excited to hear that you had the Stand Arrow. All he'd told you was to meet his ship at Bend Gate I. Maybe he was saving the excitement for when the Arrow was actually in his hand. That was fine. Right now, you could be excited enough for the both of you.

Your entire body thrummed with the need to see the Arrow. To hold it and assure yourself that it was real, that all of this had been worth it. So far, though, Bruno had been keeping the case on his person, and you didn't want to have to ask him to see it.

You didn't want to talk to him at all if you could help it.

"There's nothing to do but let the tranquilizer get out of his system," Fugo said finally, pushing back from the console. "He should be good to meet with Zero by the time we get to Bend Gate I. He's otherwise unharmed."

Bruno breathed an audible sigh of relief. "Thank you, Fugo. You're always good in a crisis."

Fugo looked uncomfortable. "It's no problem."

"We should leave Polnareff to rest, then," Trish said. "Let's go talk in the galley."

"Oh, Narancia," Bruno said. "Why don't you leave Coco Jumbo back here? Polnareff might want to talk to it once he wakes up."

[ I DON'T HAVE ANY DESIRE TO TALK TO SOMEONE WHO ABANDONED ME. ] Coco Jumbo said with a touch of disdain.

"He created you, though," Mista said.

[ I WOULD PREFER NOT TO THINK ABOUT THAT. ]

Bruno looked amused. It was such a familiar expression you had to look away. "I'm sure if you give him the time, Dr. Polnareff will fully explain the circumstances around you, Coco. He talked about you often. He holds you in very high esteem."

Coco said nothing to that. Nonetheless, it allowed Narancia to set him on the table next to Polnareff's healing pod.

"You talk to Coco like it's alive, Bruno," Trish said. "You don't find that a little weird? It's just a computer."

"I have a habit of thinking about anything that can talk as alive, I guess," replied Bruno. "It's an easy mistake to make, considering how much personality Coco has."

Everyone filed out of the med bay and to the galley. You hung back, watching Mista sling his arm over Bruno's shoulder, and Narancia start laughing at something he said. Fugo nodded when Bruno directed a question at him, and Trish actually blushed while asking a question. It threw you off, the way your crew could still act this way around Bruno. Comfortable. Familiar. Like Bruno hadn't been gone all of this time, and you had just been waiting for him to come back.