Onsen Nights Are for Emotions

"I say we shouldn't bother with this. My father is dead."

Ali pulled a face as she continued her impatient vigil by the holophone, waiting for the call that was already half an hour late. "You really think a missing earring counts as proof?"

Febee huffed, glaring down at her nails as the two companions continued to re-litigate the argument. "Why not? Can you come up with a single other reason that some punk would have it?"

"Not really."

"Well then again: why are we bothering?"

"Because," Ali twisted around in her chair, cocking at eyebrow at the elf, "The Sploop executive board will be able to come up with a reason. You were the one who said they don't want him declared dead, weren't you?" Febee didn't respond, so Ali leaned in further. "Weren't you?"

"Yes." Febee couldn't keep her lip from quirking in a small show of annoyance. "I was."

"Well then." Ali tapped a finger to her chin in a show of mock consideration. "Maybe that's why your good friend Anais, who you specifically hired for this job, just spent two damn hours with a forgery kit making up some fake bandit bonafides for herself. And maybe that's why she's trying to get in contact with a very dangerous man that we both suspect for murder!" The scholar's eyes went flat. "Maybe you should thank her."

Febee returned the look. "Thank you."

Ali nodded at that, but before she could return to keeping watch over the holophone, Charlie spoke up. "I also think we shouldn't do this."

"Really?" Ali raised her eyebrows, surprised that the remake offered their opinion. She'd had trouble getting a word out of Charlie all day, until now. "Why not?"

The towering remake's voice was as even as ever, but Ali detected a faint unsteadiness in their stance. "You said this Flynn was very dangerous."

"Yeah..."

"That is bad."

Febee cut in before either of her compatriots could say anything further, patting Charlie affectionately on the shoulder. "Well that's one part of this dumb thing I'm not worried about. After all, we've got you to protect us, don't we?"

The pause Charlie took before responding was brief, but hard to miss. "..Yes. I'll protect you. "

Huh. Ali frowned, but before she could decide how best to respond, the holophone started to glow. "Fuck, finally. Febee, go hide somewhere."

The elf stuck out her tongue but flounced back onto the bed all the same, taking a moment to settle her breasts with both arms as Ali turned her attention to the incoming call. Okay, okay. Think bandit. Think tough. Think rebel and shit. The woman took a depth breath, activated the holophone's privacy field to white out her background on the call, and then clicked the answer key with a scowl. "Who gave you this number."

The caller, a rough looking man with teardrop tattoo, balked at the greeting. "Uh, you did? The fuck?"

"I gave one person this number." Ali's folded her arms under her chest, her scowl deepening. "It wasn't you."

The man waved his hand in peevish dismissal. "Yeah yeah, well, Mr Flynn doesn't do these things personally. You want a collab, you go through me."

Ali sneered. "What are you, his secretary?"

"Uh, yes. That's exactly what I am." The man slipped on an intensely clerical set of glasses, the top of a cyberdeck popping into view as he scanned some sort of file. "Look, lots of people want to be seen fighting tyranny and championing the downtrodden alongside Mr Flynn. What I'm not sold on is why you should get to be one of those people."

It didn't sound like it was going well? But Ali was certain she recognized the smell coming off of this little man. "I don't do auditions."

"Well, that's-" The man's image vanished as Ali cut off the call. She took a moment to lean back in her chair, indulging in a bit of a stretch as the holophone began insistently glowing again. Always good to let them sweat a bit. She gave it another moment for good measure, then clicked the call back on. The man had removed his glasses in the intervening time, his lips pursed with irritation. "...Guess our signal cut out, huh."

Ali cocked an eyebrow. "Guess again."

"Ugh, that sort of petty power play is--" The man raised his hand defensively as Ali went to turn the call off again. "Wait!"

Ahha, there it is. Ali was certain she knew what that smell was: desperation. "You've got five seconds."

The man sighed. "Fuck, you're lucky that Five-Skin Freddie cancelled on us last minute." Both hands shot up this time as Ali reached for the holophone. "Okay, okay! You check out, so when's the gag? Your message said it was time sensitive?"

Ali nodded. "Yeah, It's gotta be tomorrow. Here's the thing though; there's gonna be heat. Is your guy Flynn up for something where the corpos are a bit more hands-on?"

"No doubt." The man smirked, eager to regain face. "You must not have heard, but Mr Flynn has a track record. Picked up a little gift from a big time corpo pig recently."

"Okay?" Ali yawned. "Who hasn't? Am I supposed to be impressed because he's got some megacity junior exec's ear on a string or something?"

"Pshh, junior exec. Try full on veep."

Ali did her best to appear as suspicious as she was interested. "Bullshit."

"You'll see. I'm forwarding the address. Meet Mr Flynn there and prepare to learn what a real freedom fighter is like."

As the call fizzled out, Febee spoke up from her position on the bed. "This is going to be dumb."

"Probably." Ali paused mid stretch, glancing around the room. "Where's Charlie?"

Febee shrugged idly. "They left. Said something about the baths."

Huh. The baths. That was not a bad fucking idea.

The towering figure of Charlie was unmistakable, even half submerged in water and cloaked in a heady gauze of steam from the well appointed hot springs. Well good, the risk of surprising some unsuspecting stranger was limited then. Ali let her towel slip to the ground, taking a moment to double check her limb compartments before padding towards the bathing remake.

A familiar sound stopped her in her tracks. That same buzzing noise from before. She'd had suspicions before, but now Ali was quite certain she knew what it was. "Charlie?"

The remake didn't budge, though the buzzing immediately cut off. "Yes, Anais."

"Are you crying?"

For a long moment, the only break in the silence was a few short, perhaps irresistible buzzes. Then, Charlie spoke. "..Why would I cry. I'm big and strong."

Ali slipped into the water beside her friend, who did not react as she laid a hand on his shoulder. "Charlie, please tell me what's wrong..."

"Nothing is wrong."

Bullshit. Not that Ali was going to say that out loud. "Charlie..." She slipped her arm as best she could around their expansive side. "Those bandits hurt you really badly. I was so scared for you; I can only imagine what you were--"

"I wasn't, that is, I," Charlie interrupted, though they seemed to be having trouble with their train of thought, "I wasn't, I cannot be scared. I have to protect everyone."

"Charlie." The remake's head barely shifted until Ali lifted her hand, gently guiding their faceplate around to meet her eyes. "Who protects you?"

"I--" Charlie's even tone almost quavered before sputtering out. Ali raised her eyebrows as another new sound emerged from the remake, a strange fizzling that flipped on and off. By the time she realized that sound was Charlie activating and then deactivating their voicebox without having said anything, she felt the remake shifting in her arms. "I..." They sunk lower into the water, pressing themselves as lightly as possible into the woman's side. "I was so scared."

"Oh, Charlie--" Ali pulled her friend into herself, the remake briefly remaining stiff as she attempted to take them into her arms. It wasn't long, though, before Charlie was buzzing in simulated tears once more. The remake had doubled over, trying to make themselves as small as possible and bury themselves as far as they could into Ali's comforting embrace. The scholar wasn't certain about her plan for Flynn, or about why she even cared so much about seeing this job through. Honestly, something was bugging her about the entire situation. But she did know what she needed to do, right now.

"Don't worry, Charlie. I'll protect you."

The remake's buzzing sobs only paused to allow the briefest of replies. "Okay."

So Ali rested back, softly stroking the side of Charlie's faceplate as she made soothing noises and did her best to cradle the enormous golem with the gentle heart. Yeah, no question about it: she knew what needed to be done. She had a giant, beautiful cupcake to keep safe. And fuck anyone who tried to get in the way of that.