4 minutes.

They had 4 minutes to bounce the idea back and forth before Pela and the other guards with her finally stopped at the room the duo was in.

"Oop, no more time-!" y/n realized before grabbing onto Gepard's clothing with a, "Alrighty, Plan B!"

"Wait, what do you mean plan B-?!" Gepard demanded in a hushed tone as there was a knock on the door to the room, "Hey-! M-Miss Y/n...!"

"Setting the scene, setting the scene-!"

"WHA—" Gepard quieted down a bit when y/n gave him a sharp look and tossed his jacket away, "What do you mean setting the scene?"

"Make them uncomfortable, that's what!"

"I don't think—!"

Another knock on the door, this one more forceful than the last followed by a, "This is the Silvermane Guards! If you don't open up, we'll have to force our way in!"

"Damn, what the hell are these boots made out of?" y/n grumbled as she ignored the warning, tugging one of Gepard's boots off and tossing it over her shoulder, followed by the other, "Oh! Got it!"

"Miss Y/n we're running out of time..!"

"I know, I know, give me a second!"

From outside the door, all the guard heard was hushed voices going back and forth. None of them could quite make out what they were saying, but Pela was losing patience.

Someone had reported supposedly spotting the h/c haired suspect wandering around the vicinity of Goethe Hotel earlier that hour, and Pela wasted no time mobilizing a bunch of Silvermane Guards to capture and have her questioned immediately.

The few rooms they checked had been empty or occupied by upset guests so far, but Pela had a feeling about this room in particular.

"Open the door, we will not wait any longer!" she ordered, "You have ten seconds before we allow ourselves in!"

The room service attendant accompanying them shuffled awkwardly, glancing back and forth between Pela and the door as the noise on the other end persisted.

Shuffling, breathless yet hushed voices, the room service attendant really hoped nothing private was happening in there...

"Open the door." Pela ordered.

The room service attendant froze, "W-What?"

"Open it. Now." Pela repeated.

The man whispered a quick plea to Qlipoth to spare his eyes before hurriedly beginning to unlock the door.

On the other end, there was a gasp of, "Hey— Gepard-!!!" and a rather loud creak from the bed just before the room service attendant opened the door— only for it to slam into something and stop completely.

The poor little man looked up and was greeted by a bare chest. It seemed as though Qlipoth had not heard his pleas, as he got a full view of Captain Gepard's bare chest.

The room service attendant let out a frightened scream, dropping the keys in his haste to get away before running down the hall shrieking.

The other guards hastily shielded their eyes, though a couple shameless stared while Pela visibly recoiled, immediately moving to cover her eyes as well, "Captain Gepard!"

Gepard had never felt more embarrassed in his life *debatable*, and it was evident on his face from how heavily his cheeks had been dusted with pink.

The original plan had a bit of a time limit which ran out, and it became basically unusable the moment Gepard threw y/n on the bed in his haste to get her out of the line of sight of the guards on the other side of the door, so now... it was just improv.

"Pela, what brings you here?" Gepard inquired, a little bit of nervousness in his voice, 'I can still feel y/n glaring at me... I should apologize for throwing her.'

He cast a sheepish glance back over to y/n who had wiggled her way under the bed and was indeed glaring at him. She did hastily wave at him to pay attention and shielded the door to the room with his body just enough to prevent a curious guard from peering in.

"There were multiple reports from various different people of one of the suspected Infiltrators hanging around Goethe, so we came here to investigate." Pela replied before her eyes narrowed, "I understand that you took the rest of today off, but what are you doing here?"

Gepard opened his mouth to reply, but the words literally caught in his throat. 💩, he was willingly spreading information about himself just to keep this possibly innocent/possibly guilty woman from getting caught. Was it really worth it?

Y/n caught Gepard hesitating and rolled her eyes, 'Anddd back to Captain 🚚-up. He's hesitating. Guessing I've gotta do it for him.'

There was a shuffle from the room that clearly caught everyone's attention, causing Pela to attempt to peer into the room past Gepard's blockade of a body.

"Is there somebody in there with you-?"

Almost immediately, a pair of arms covered by sheets from the bed wrapped around Gepard's waist, causing the young man to tense up and the blush on his cheeks to intensify, followed by y/n's sleepy yet sultry, "Gepard, come back to bed already... we haven't got much time, y'know?"

Gepard snapped out of his panic when y/n kind of knocked him in the back of his leg with her knee, beginning to usher her back and close the door with a, "If there's nothing important you need to speak about with me, Pela, then..."

Hm... Pela was beginning to understand now.

The guards had been mumbling something about Gepard being all starry eyed lately, and there had even some more effort in his attempts to grow flowers... not to mention, he'd taken time off so abruptly when he almost never took breaks.

Yes. Pela understood completely.

"Of course," the young woman nodded, the look of shock disappearing as she went back into work mode and turned away, "Enjoy your evening with your partner."

As she began to stroll away down the hall to find that room service attendant, the guards following her whispering amongst themselves excitedly, Gepard could only let out a sigh as he closed the door.

When he turned around, y/n had already retreated back to the bed while hugging Mimi, "Did you really have to do that?"

"You were choking so I had to help you eat." y/n replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "Anyways, it's not very safe here for me anymore, so I'd better go."

"Go where?" Gepard inquired, "The only place you could go is outside of Belobog, and that's too—"

He paused.
"No."

Y/n smirked as she popped up and approached the window, "Why, yes. Enjoy your day off, Gepard. I'll be going now, thanks for your assistance!"

Before Gepard could say anything else, y/n had already hopped out the window, startling someone outside who screamed.

He ran to the window only to find the startled person, and no signs of y/n. Damn, just how quick was she?

Y/n was already hauling 🍑 back towards the route Sampo had directed her to. He'd been very empathetic about keeping it undiscovered, but y/n was very confident in her ability to go undetect—

"There's one of the suspects! Arrest her!"

Damn.

Y/n skidded to a halt, abruptly changing directions and fleeing into a different alleyway as a group of 6-7 guards gave chase.

She ended up at a dead end but didn't halt, running right at the dumpster and hopping onto it. The guards stopped and gawked as the young woman bounced off the walls, propelling herself higher and higher up until she reached the top of the buildings.

"Whew..." y/n let out a breath of relief as she walked along the rooftops, making her way back to her original destination with Mimi safely in her grasp, "Close one."

That bullet wound she'd gotten in that little scuffle with Bronya and the guards accompanying her had already healed, but that didn't stop it from causing y/n pain.

Not to mention, her back was killing her.

Some sneaking, lots of stairs, and a walk back to Natasha's clinic later: y/n found that her friends were no longer there.

...Hm.

When she inquired about her friend's whereabouts, Natasha told her that March and Dan Heng were resting at the Grand Goethe Hotel *there was another one???* while Bronya and Caelus had left to help some person called Seele gather medical materials.

The kind doctor lady then directed y/n towards a place called Rivet Town. She warned that it was crowded with Fragmentum creatures, to which y/n requested a knife.

"Are you sure? A knife won't do much..."

"It's perfect. Takes the strain off my body, y'know?"

Y/n entered Rivet Town without fear, armed with nothing but her knife and Mimi at her side as she set off to track down Caelus. She figured that if she was going to return after doing something she wasn't supposed to, Caelus would be the best person to see first.

There were indeed a lot of monsters.

...

Not that it was difficult.

There was a screech from an Imaginary Weaver as y/n struck it with the tip of the knife, only to blow a hole in it and take it out in one hit.

"Damn!" y/n complained, "Too easy! Who's next?"

She whirled around and received no reply.

Y/n paused, eased up a little, and frowned.

Quiet... it was too quiet.

No, it was borderline silent.

Y/n didn't like silence.

She grabbed ahold of Mimi and held out the lion plush in front of her, scrutinizing its face, "Hm..."

It stared back silently.

"Y/n, are you done already?"

"Mm! I'm off to the ▇▇▇  ▇  ▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇." y/n replied with a wave of her hand, "I've still got work to do before the day ends."

"Alright, don't overwork yourself!"

Y/n hurried along as she navigated her way through the ▇▇▇▇▇▇ Commission. She was greeted as she passed her co-workers, returning their greetings with nods and smiles of her own.

Being a ▇▇▇▇ was very different from being a Cloud Knight, but it did have its similarities.

Y/n's job mainly revolved around military affairs, as that was her area of expertise, but her load had recently been doubled when she *willingly* decided to take on multiple jobs at multiple different commissions at once.

Where so many jobs would once leave y/n burnt out and tired, she found that she preferred it in recent days.

It kept her busy, not in the same way as being a Cloud Knight but without the health deteriorating drawbacks that came with it. That, and she didn't have time to think about things that would cause her more pain.

One job to the next.

Finished with one pile of papers...

Only to be greeted by another and an overgrown grimalkin who had no intentions of letting her work until she gave it the attention it was expecting.

"Grimalkin my 🍑, that's a 🚚ing lion."

Y/n stared blankly at the lion that had decided to SIT ON THE WORK SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DOING.

"No." was all y/n said, her voice weak, "Just... no..."

She was ignored and winced as the beast laid on its side, clearly expecting to be pet for the next hour.

"Get off, I need to work-!" y/n complained as she attempted to shove the beast off of her work space, receiving happy little huffs in response, "I'm not playing around, Mimi! Damn it, where's ▇▇▇? This is her job, not mine!"

In the end, she did manage to scoot Mimi away, but she was subjected to constant licking and face rubs from the big cat that decided to stay with her while she worked.

All was quiet in the room, but it didn't bother y/n as much as she listened to the little growly-hums that left the big cat who had taken to messing up her hair with its persistent licking.

Both of them paused and looked back simultaneously upon realizing someone else had entered the room, and there was a pause before laughter met y/n's ears.

Laughter that made y/n scowl outwardly, but caused her heart to warm and the constant pain she'd been bearing to lessen.

"It's not funny." she said curtly, turning her attention back to the work in front of her while Mimi turned to greet the newcomer with the same growly-humming y/n had been surrounded by for the past hour or so.

"It's very funny. What was it you were saying just the other day?" the newcomer inquired as he joined y/! back at her work space, "Mm... something about not liking Mimi."

"I don't like animals." y/n stated in a flat tone.

"And here I thought you trusted me enough not to lie."

"It's not a lie!"

Y/n grumbled quietly when there was a weight on her left shoulder as her friend rested his head there with a content little hum, Mimi doing the same on her other shoulder.

It was a little difficult to write... but y/n persisted.

Despite the extra weight, it was nice.

This was... nice.

But y/n felt uneasy. No matter how much work she buried herself in, she still felt off. She still felt that horrible pain.

She frequently practiced her techniques with every weapon she'd learned to use, and her senses remained sharp enough as her comrades would sometimes surprise attack her out of nowhere when they checked in to see how she was doing.

Even though she could feel herself slipping away each day she spent engaged in combat, it was what she did best.

Y/n heaved a sigh, feeling a little irritated when she noticed that one of her uninvited guests was dozing off  on her shoulder, before shrugging to wake him back up.

"Bumbling fool... do your own work."

"Ah, but if I completed it all, I wouldn't get to see my precious friend at the end of each day..."

Y/n's scowl lightened up a bit as silence, a comfortable silence, fell once more. After a moment, her writing ceased.

"There's something I want to tell you, ▇—"

"Look out!"

Y/n snapped out of her daze right as she was struck in the gut by something small, the impact causing her to stumble back and out of the path of a beam of flames which came from one of those weird out of space Fragmentum creatures. The one that wielded fire, of course.

She lost her footing when her back stung once more, sending pain coursing throughout her upper body and she landed on her butt with a small grunt while doing her best to lighten the fall for whatever hit her.

The one who hit her was a little girl, wearing a red jacket that reached just above her knees and— OH MY GOODNESS, WHERE WERE HER SHOES?! SOCKS??? She had to have hurt her feet, running around without anything on them!

"Miss! Are you alright?" the little red eyed girl— wait, no, that was light magenta, inquired with worried eyes.

Y/n began to reply, but her eyes fell upon the creature that had nearly killed her in the first place. Ugh, it looked so weird.

"We should run, it's not safe here!" the little girl said quickly, hopping up and attempting to pull y/n to her feet.

"Oh, that's..." y/n zeroed in on a little white mass on the ground. Mimi. She'd dropped Mimi. Right by the Fragmentum Creature, "Yeah, no, stay here."

"Miss!" the little girl protested, but y/n didn't pay her any mind. Ran right at the Fragmentum creature with killing intent clear in her eyes.

The creature prepared to attack but faltered because it could've sworn it saw a faint haze behind y/n as she charged at it. Not just her.

It didn't hesitate for long, though, swiping at her with claws that felt like hot coal only for y/n to slice its arm right off. The creature didn't get to make a noise of pain, as it was chopped in half right as the cut cleared right through its arm and into its body instead.

Y/n didn't look twice at the disintegrating creature, picking up Mimi instead and checking the plush for damage. When she confirmed that it wasn't damaged anywhere aside from its missing ear, she let out a breath of relief before turning to look at the little girl who had helped her.

"Thanks, kid. If it weren't for you, I would've been a goner!" y/n chimed, 'Probably not.'

"No, you don't have to thank me." the girl began with a shake of her head, "I'm really sorry for running into you, though. You didn't seem to hear me the first few times I called out to you."

"Ah... haha, I guess I spaced out..." y/n murmured before crouching to the little girl's level, "I'm y/n. What's your name?"

The girl blinked once, then twice, before fidgeting with a quiet, "It's Clara... are you from Boulder Town, maybe? I haven't seen you at the Robot Settlement before."

"Mm? That's cause I'm not from either place."

Clara frowned, "So you're from the Overworld?"

"Nope!" y/n grinned before pausing, "Ah, but, I'm not quite sure where I am from. Only where I'm not."

Before Clara could voice her concern over y/n's inability to remember where she was from, y/n took notice of a box with a bunch of fallen painkillers, "Looks like you dropped something."

Y/n gathered all the pain medicine before offering it to Clara with a, "Here you go! My thanks for your kind act of rescuing me!"

Clara accepted the box with a quiet, "Thank you, Miss Y/n. If you don't mind me asking, what brings you to Rivet Town. It's very dangerous here, you know?"

'How do I explain to a kid that I'm looking for a hydrogen bomb, a lady with egg earrings, and some person I don't know...?' "Looking for a challenge!" 'Idiot, not that!'

Clara gave y/n a concerned look, "Miss Y/n, I think you might have some brain damage."

"Haha, probably." y/n snickered and was a little surprised when Clara began to usher her along, "Uh... huh? Clara? What-?"

"I'm going to take you to get checked." Clara announced, "We don't really have doctors at the Robot Settlement, but I'm sure Mr. Svarog can help!"

"Doctor? Who says I need a doctor?"

(LOOK AT HIS LITTLE SMILEEE)

[Revision Complete]