Time seemed to drag on especially long on this hot day. If it were any other day, Shadow Lace would spend the day chattering away on the radio channel about everything and nothing, yet Dr. Death had warned the other radio hosts about the lines potentially being tapped by BL/i and therefore no one should be talking about anything. Contacting Opera Ghost or Star Shooter was out of the question, they were busy with their own things and she couldn’t even contact them because of the goddamn radio problem! The only hope for any human interaction Shadow had was Val Velocity, it seemed. He had promised to come visit Shadow today, but where the hell was he? Some killjoy’s would probably have chided her for believing he’d come, but she trusted him, so where was he? The radio channels being inactive had become even more of a nuisance, those BL/i bastards severed their main way of communicating with Val! How else was she supposed to know when he was arriving?! Shadow needed to keep herself occupied, like right now.

Taking into consideration the options of what they could do to fill the time, Shadow decided on the only thing they could (or wanted to) do in this radio-less, music-less, lonely pit; clean, clean, clean. Shadow had already wiped down the windows of their small base, the sun filtered through the old panes of glass in rays of golden light, negating the need for overhead lights. They had moved on to reorganising all of their equipment, untangling wires, fixing odd parts and bobs. Cleaning had always been… relaxing for Shadow, soothing even. Usually, the radio would be tuned to some random station, a loud experimental rock song filling the room as they swayed to the music and did whatever they needed to do, but since the radio stations weren’t freaking active, they were forced to listen to their own thoughts. 

Cleaning always brought back memories for them. Shadow Lace and Spider Lace, their sister, used to live in this base together; they used to clean together, laugh together, cook food together, everything. Oh, how terribly Shadow missed Spider, but they had to move on. With determination, they begin reorganizing the ‘kitchen’ trying desperately to push away those memories, shove them in a drawer and never think about it again, never think about how it was Shadow’s fault that Spider couldn’t be right here next to them, that it was Shadow’s fault that Spider had left to the Phoenix Witch, how it was Shadow’s fault-

The sound of glass shattering was what pulled Shadow out of her spiral. She looked down, the glass shards littered the ground under her reflecting the light of the late afternoon sun. She would need to clean it up, god forbid Val arrived and saw the mess. The care and caution that Shadow held while cleaning the glass was enough to keep the thoughts of her older sister at bay, and those thoughts slowly ebbed and flowed away from their mind as she continued to clean up the house. Cans of power pup went from a cluttered mess to neatly stacked rows in the cupboard while radio equipment was dusted off from the sand that had been building up from the day of inactivity, it’s truly crazy how quickly dust and sand built up in the zones.

The base was small, thankfully; no more than three rooms for her bed, her radio station and her living/kitchen area to organise and wipe down clean. The minimal amount of clutter had already been shoved neatly organised into the one cabinet that occupied the space, and all her radio equipment had been dusted and polished. She could move on to cleaning her bedroom, but the heat had exhausted Shadow and even thinking about the mess of cloth and paper that littered the bed made her let out a groan. Her mind struggled to try and find something, anything she could do to keep herself occupied, when she heard it. There was knocking on the door, followed by the sound of someone tapping their foot impatiently on the ground. It was the same routine that Shadow had grown to recognise and love, a routine that led to Shadow practically ripping the door off of its hinges to see him on the other side.

Shadow didn’t let Val get a word out before they dragged it inside, into their home, into their arms. They buried their face in Val’s bleach-white hair, inhaling the smell of gunfire and sweat that seemed to follow it everywhere. Val smelt like home, like a promise that Shadow wouldn’t be left alone to their own thoughts anymore. Shadow rocked back and forth with Val in their arms, not even noticing that Val was talking to them, probably telling Shadow some comment about ‘how clingy’ they were, but Shadow didn’t care, not right now at least. It wasn’t until Val pinched them did Shadow finally pay attention to what it was saying.

“What’s gotten into ya? You seem more… more desperate than usual.” Val leaned back slightly, his bright blue eyes staring at Shadow from underneath his mask, those same eyes that Shadow had committed to memory. They almost didn’t want to answer him at first, Shadow was perfectly content in just staring at Val for the whole day, but it would be nice to talk to someone that wasn’t themself. They bent down slightly and buried their face into the white leather of Val’s jacket, feeling as the age-softened material pressed against their face.

“Just missed ya’. It’s been too long since I last got to like, talk to you,” She mumbled into it’s shoulder, which shook as Val chuckled. At that, she finally loosened the grasp she had around Val, taking a step back to be able to fully admire it. Shadow could honestly just stare at Val all day, but it probably wouldn’t find that fun, so instead Shadow just dragged Val over to the couch which still sagged whenever any weight was put on it. Val practically collapsed on top of Shadow, scooting itself onto her lap with a shit-eating grin.

“Y’know… ya’ probably wouldn’t miss me as much if you would come out and visit me and my crew,” Val ripped his mask off, though it looked like he still had a mask on considering the tan line that was left behind on his skin, and looked up at Shadow expectantly. 

“Val I-“ Shadow sighed, cupping Val’s face in their hands. “It’s not that easy. I’ve told you this before.” Val obviously wasn’t pleased with their answer. Shadow always had issues leaving the base; sure they’d manage to do it once or twice, but those were the most anxiety-inducing outings of their life, they couldn’t make themselves do it ever since… ever since Spider died. Their thoughts spiraled yet again, completely blocking everything around them out as their mind delved back into that memory, coming back home and seeing their sister laying there-

Shadow let out a surprised yelp as Val picked her up, throwing her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Shadow was silenced, sure it did snap her out of whatever that was, but also what was going on?! No matter how hard she kicked and flailed, Val just would not let her down! He just kept walking towards… towards the front door… Shadow finally found her words again, and with them she demanded Val explain. “What the fuck are you doing?! Put me down!” 

“The only way to get you to stop being a hermit is to get you outside, so that’s what I’m doing!” Val huffed through gritted teeth, he couldn’t let Shadow know that their kicking was actually hurting him, that would throw off his whole dark and brooding image after all. He just had to keep walking forward, walk through that front door and bring Shadow into the great outdoors despite how their protests got worse (and more painful). 

At some point Shadow had given up on voicing their opinions on the situation, instead deciding on just yelling incoherently as the front door of their base grew further and further away from their grasp. It felt as if their world was crashing in on them, like every little thing that made Shadow feel safe was being ripped away from their hands. Their mind flashed to that night all those years ago yet again; Shadow and Spider yelling at each other, Shadow walking out despite how their sister begged for her to stay, oh God the look on Spider’s face when Shadow closed that door, Shadow didn’t even notice that her cheeks were soaked in tears, or that Val had finally stopped walking and had put them back down in the sand not even fifty meters from their base.

“See? It ain’t so bad out here,” Val chuckled, bending down to take a seat next to where Shadow was dropped. Shadow stayed silent, it wasn’t as if she didn’t want to say something, hurl an insult at Val or something, but she just… couldn’t find the words. Val looked over at her, but for once Shadow wasn’t looking at it. Slowly, she looked around, at the rocky outcrops and the cacti that surrounded her small base. It was so different to look at the landscape without her usual dark goggles that blocked out most of the light. She was still crying, hiccuping every few seconds, but at least she had somewhat calmed down. 

“Wow it’s… it’s really that bad?” Val’s voice softened ever so slightly. Shadow turned and glared at him, a clear look of ‘I told you so’ on their face. It was odd for Shadow to be so quiet, they had their own radio channel where they do nothing but talk for crying out loud! Val shuffled closer to them, pulling Shadow in with an arm around their shoulders. He didn’t really know what to do, emotions were fucking complicated, and he didn’t want to mess anything up with Shadow. “Wanna uhh… wanna talk about it?” Shadow shook her head no, her eyes not quite focusing on anything in specific. 

“Alright, fair. Want to head back inside?” Val asked tentatively. Maybe he had moved a little too fast with this whole ‘getting Shadow over her fear’ thing, maybe he should have actually asked if she wanted to do this.

Her eyes focused on the setting sun, at the sky being painted all shades of red, orange, pink and by Destroya it was beautiful. Shadow hesitated at that, yet… she nodded, she wanted to stay outside. Shadow leaned into Val, rocking back and forth, and simply watched as that big ball of light dipped below the horizon, the warmth going with it. When the temperature dropped to what felt like below freezing, Shadow finally stood up. She waited for Val to stand up with her, and silently, they both made their way back to the base in silence.  The two sat down and had dinner (power pup, of course), not a word said between the two of them, but the silence wasn’t one that sprouted out of anger or stress, instead it was one of peace. Shadow had made peace with the fact that Val did what it did because it wanted the best for Shadow. It wasn’t until the couple were curled up together in Shadow’s bed did they finally speak up again. “Maybe, maybe I could like, meet the rest of your crew? We could hang out near my base,” Shadow all but whispered out into the air, stroking Val’s hair mindlessly.